Enter the Meta: Is Facebook Brushing Whistleblower Allegations Under the Carpet?

The update came right after the tech giant received backlash from lawmakers and regulators for its blatant disregard for privacy, its market power to influence price, and shutting eyes to abusive content.

Earlier this week, U.S. technocrat Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s structural overhauling. Facebook Inc, which is now solemnly called Meta, was under continuous criticism from lawmakers and regulators for its blatant disregard for privacy, its market power to influence price, and shutting eyes to abusive content.

A couple of more changes accompanied the brand’s ‘metamorphosis’ to Meta. The update was followed by a new company logo developed in the shape of an infinity symbol that was slightly off-kilter. Facebook’s other programs, including Instagram and WhatsApp, will continue to exist under the Meta banner. 

The company’s new moniker emerges as it strives to survive one of its most profound crises yet and switch to its plans for the “metaverse,” which would obliterate the barriers between the real and digital worlds. Meta’s objective will be to bring the metaverse to life by assisting individuals in connecting, forming networks, and expanding their enterprises, the tech giant claimed.

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Meta’s objective will be to bring the metaverse to life by assisting individuals in connecting, forming networks, and expanding their enterprises, said Zuckerberg during a virtual and augmented reality symposium live-streamed by the corporation.

“We have built things that have brought people together in new ways. We’ve learned from struggling with difficult social issues and living under closed platforms. Now it is time to take everything we’ve learned and help build the next chapter,” wrote Zuckerberg in a letterOpens a new window .

“I’m proud of what we’ve built so far, and I’m excited about what comes next — as we move beyond what’s possible today, beyond the constraints of screens, beyond the limits of distance and physics, and towards a future where everyone can be present with each other, create new opportunities and experience new things. It is a future that is beyond any one company and that will be made by all of us.”

From Facebook to Meta: What’s New?

The metaverse, a hypothetical future internet made up of persistent, shareable, 3D virtual areas linked into a projected virtual cosmos, was first used in a dystopian fiction a few decades ago. The term is now gaining traction in Silicon Valley. As part of its attempts to build a ‘responsible’ metaverse, Facebook has already disclosed intentions to invest $50 million and expects to generate roughly 10,000 new jobs in Europe, which is in sync with its metaverse goals.

Meta’s role in this journey as per the company will be to accelerate the development of the fundamental technologies, social platforms, and creative tools to bring the metaverse to life and weave these technologies through its social media apps. “We believe the metaverse can enable better social experiences than anything that exists today, and we will dedicate our energy to helping achieve its potential,” the founder said. 

The metaverse will not be created by one company. It will be built by creators and developers making new experiences and digital items that are interoperable and unlock a massively larger creative economy than the one constrained by today’s platforms and their policies.

Zuckerberg explained, “We just announced that we’re making a fundamental change to our company. We’re now looking at and reporting on our business as two different segments: one for our family of apps and one for our work on future platforms. Our work on the metaverse is not just one of these segments. The metaverse encompasses both the social experiences and future technology. As we broaden our vision, it’s time for us to adopt a new brand.”

The company’s mission remains the same — it’s still about bringing people together, the CEO said. Our apps and their brands “aren’t changing” either. We’re still the “company that designs technology” around people.

“But all of our products, including our apps, now share a new vision: to help bring the metaverse to life. And now we have a name that reflects the breadth of what we do.”

“From now on, we will be metaverse-first, not Facebook-first. That means that over time you won’t need a Facebook account to use our other services. As our new brand starts showing up in our products, I hope people around the world come to know the Meta brand and the future we stand for.”

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Is Facebook Burying the Hatchet?

With this move of renaming and rehashing the brand, has Facebook/Meta hit the panic button? Its move in the middle of the unwanted attention and recent whistleblower allegations further adds to the company’s woes. 

In the most recent scandal, former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen disclosed information that indicated the business prioritized profit before user safety. The records, according to Zuckerberg, are being exploited to construct a “false picture.”

Emphasizing privacy and safety with the new company update, he said, “Privacy and safety need to be built into the metaverse from day one. So do open standards and interoperability. This will require not just novel technical work — like supporting crypto and NFT projects in the community — but also new forms of governance. Most of all, we need to help build ecosystems so that more people have a stake in the future and can benefit not just as consumers but as creators.”

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