Facebook Is Changing Its Name to Meta and People Have Thoughts

Facebook announced Thursday that the company's new name will be Meta. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, "We are a company that builds technology to connect. Together, we can finally put people at the center of our technology. And together, we can unlock a massively bigger creator economy." The rebrand will be reflected in the company's overarching corporate name, which effectively demotes Facebook's namesake to being just one of the company's subsidiaries like Instagram and WhatsApp.

Zuckerberg said that the name Meta will "reflect who we are and what we hope to build," adding that the name Facebook doesn't fully encompass everything the company does now and is still closely linked to only one of its products. "But over time, I hope we are seen as a metaverse company."

The move instantly caught the collective eye of the tech and social media universe, with Twitter users flooding the social media platform with reactions to the move. As of late, Facebook has been under intense scrutiny after revelations based on dating internal documents provided to the Wall Street Journal by whistleblower Frances Haugen showed that Facebook's Instagram platform had become a toxic place for teenagers, especially girls. Antitrust regulators are pushing for the company to be broken up, as public trust in the social media platform is faltering. Below are some reactions to Facebook's name change.