#DeleteFacebook trends as netizens react after Zuckerberg changes his firm name to 'Meta'

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s major rebranding announcement of changing the company’s name to ‘Meta’, has triggered a severe backlash on the internet against the tech giant. Claiming that the rebranding aims to distract from the firm's scandals, several people said that they “don’t want any part of it” and denounced the platform for its “poor” regulation of content and spreading misinformation. It is to be noted Facebook rebranded itself to ‘Metaverse’ at a time when the firm’s image is suffering a blow especially with whistleblowers and lawmakers scrutinising its policies. 

Even renowned personalities such as producer Adam Lance Garcia, comedy writer Matt Oswalt joined the combined criticism. With the Facebook CEO's announcement, #DeleteFacebook started trending on Twitter with internet users saying “Tough Zuck.” The name change, however, shifts the company’s focus to the “metaverse” that refers to the combination of virtual and augmented reality technologies. 

But it comes in the backdrop of a whistleblower leaking hundreds of internal documents that gave the world an insight into the firm’s approach to misinformation and hate speech. 

While most of the criticism against Facebook was accompanied by jokes and sarcasm, some of them did not take the same tone. Scientist Matt Blaze wrote on Twitter, “Renaming Facebook 'Meta' solves the same kinds of problems that renaming 'torture' 'enhanced interrogation' referring to the intelligence agency CIA’s techniques of extracting information from suspects of 9/11 terror attacks."

'Next platform will be even more immersive'

While internet users united to call out the tech giant, Mark Zuckerberg, in his letter, pledged that "next platform will be even more immersive." On Thursday, 28 October, he said, "We are at the beginning of the next chapter for the internet, and it’s the next chapter for our company too. In recent decades, technology has given people the power to connect and express ourselves more naturally."

Zuckerberg said, "We’ve gone from desktop to web to mobile; from text to photos to video. But this isn’t the end of the line. The next platform will be even more immersive — an embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it. We call this the metaverse, and it will touch every product we build."

"The defining quality of the metaverse will be a feeling of presence — like you are right there with another person or in another place. Feeling truly present with another person is the ultimate dream of social technology. That is why we are focused on building this," he added.

(IMAGE: Facebook)