Time to Rebrand: Social Media Giant Facebook Reportedly Planning to Change Company Name
- The American multinational technology company that owns Facebook will be announcing a new name by next week, apparently after focusing on the metaverse
- The new development came after Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram crashed, leaving millions in the dark
- Facebook has since announced plans to hire 10 000 people in the European Union to build the metaverse
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Social media giant Facebook is reportedly planning to change its company name.
Source: Getty Images
According to CNN, the American multinational technology company based in California would announce a new name by next week focused on the metaverse.
Metaverse involves combining virtual and augmented reality technologies in a new online domain and could be in line with the company's direction. In this, users would be able to interact with each other in real-time virtually.
The Guardian reported that under the new changes, the company headed by Mark Zuckerberg would rebrand from its holding company but would retain the social media platform name.
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However, Facebook did not comment on the matter, terming it a rumour.
The holding company owns Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus.
Hiring plans
Facebook has since announced plans to hire 10 000 people in the European Union to build the metaverse.
The decision to hire European labour stems from having a large consumer market, first-class universities, and, most important, top-quality talent.
Metaverse enthusiasts point out that the internet is already starting to blur the lines between virtual experiences and reality.
Outage
The new development came after Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram crashed, leaving millions in the dark. According to Downdetector.com, Facebook, the platform received over 20,000 complaints.
Via a statement released on his Facebook account on Tuesday, 5 October, Zuckerberg admitted the outage was an inconvenience as many people worldwide rely on their services.
He also announced the restoration of the services, whose outage made headline news across the world.
"Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger are coming back online now. Sorry for the disruption today.
"I know how much you rely on our services to stay connected with the people you care about,” he wrote.
The outage smacked Zuckerberg so hard that it saw him fall from his place as the fifth richest person in the world.
Unexpected social media blackout follows whistleblower’s appearance on TV
In similar news, Briefly News previously reported that after a whistleblower made her tell-all television media debut calling out social media giants; a blackout of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp was experienced worldwide on Monday, 4 October.
The identity of Frances Haugen, a 37-year-old ex-Facebook product manager, was revealed when she appeared on 60 Minutes, the CBS broadcasted news segment, on Sunday, 3 October.
The former civic integrity issues worker at the company released documents that contained tens of thousands of internal research and reports that brought to light that Facebook knew the platforms were utilised to disseminate violence, hatred and fake news that the company attempted to sweep the evidence under the rug.
Source: Briefly News
Kelly Lippke (Senior Editor) Kelly Lippke is a copy editor/proofreader who started her career at the Northern-Natal Courier with a BA in Communication Science/Psychology (Unisa, 2007). Kelly has worked for several Caxton publications, including the Highway Mail and Northglen News. Kelly’s unique editing perspective stems from an additional major in Linguistics. Kelly joined Briefly News in 2018 and she has 14 years of experience. Kelly has also passed a set of trainings by Google News Initiative. You can reach her at kelly.lippke@briefly.co.za.
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