Facebook Inc. rebrands as Meta to stress ‘metaverse’ plan

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company is rebranding itself as Meta, an effort to encompass its virtual-reality vision for the future.

Experts point out that it also appears to be an attempt to change the subject from the Facebook Papers, a document trove that has revealed how Facebook ignored or downplayed internal warnings of the negative and often harmful consequences its algorithms wreaked across the world.

Zuckerberg insists that the metaverse – what you might think of as the internet rendered in three dimensions – represents the next technological horizon for humanity, and thinks a billion people could be connected to it within a decade.

A corporate rebranding strategy sometimes works – such as Andersen Consulting, which changed its name to Accenture. But sometimes it fails, like when Tribune Co. tried to rebrand as Tronc and was widely ridiculed.