HELLO, META: Facebook Announces Name Change Amid Public Scrutiny

By Paige Boyd, Managing Editor

It's official: Goodbye, Facebook. Hello, Meta.

On Thursday's Facebook Connect event (Oct. 28), founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the official name change of the parent company to reflect what he hopes to accomplish for its future. “We are a company that builds technology to connect,” he explained in his keynote address. “Together, we can finally put people at the center of our technology. And together, we can unlock a massively bigger creator economy.”

While the actual Facebook app is keeping its name (as is Instagram, WhatsApp, etc.), Meta plans to expand their efforts to bring the Metaverse to life with advancements to VR, augmented reality, and other technology. Of course, this announcement comes at a very interesting time, considering the fact that the company has been under intense scrutiny after the Wall Street Journal published a series of documents from whistleblower Frances Haugen, including revelations of young users' distrust in Facebook and the company's failure to police global content effectively.

In a post made shortly after the announcement, Zuckerberg said, "The last five years have been humbling for me and our company in many ways. One of the main lessons I've learned is that building products people love isn't enough. I've gained more appreciation that the internet's story isn't straightforward. Every chapter brings new voices and new ideas, but also new challenges, risks, and disruption of established interests. We'll need to work together, from the beginning, to bring the best possible version of this future to life."

Check out the announcement and Zuckerberg's statement below.