Meta reactions: shares up, strong criticism, poking fun
“The last few years have been humbling for me and my company in a lot of ways”, said Mark Zuckerberg when he announced that Facebook is rebranding to be called Meta. First reactions were mixed. Shares of Meta Platforms Inc (FB.O) were up 1% in New York premarket trading but critics said it’s as when cigarette-maker Philip Morris renamed itself Altria in 2001, they still sold cigarettes suspected of causing cancer.
The name change came after lots of bad publicity for the company after whistleblowers accused the company of putting profit before security and not doing what it could to stop disinformation.
Zuckerberg in his 75-minute presentation of his vision – the metaverse – said that ”our hope is that within the next decade, the metaverse will reach a billion people, host hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce, and support jobs for millions of creators and developers.”
”Today we’re seen as a social media company. Facebook is one of the most used technology products in the history of the world. It’s an iconic social media brand.” After that he announced that for the future, the company will be called Meta and have two segments: one for the family of apps and one for future platforms – the metaverse.
”From now on, we will be metaverse-first, not Facebook-first”, he said.
Facebook´s market power, algorithm-power and impact on kids have frequently been discussed in the US Senate and its committees, not least after whistleblower Frances Haugen recently put the company in a new and even more uncomfortable position.
Criticism had earlier come from competitors, analysts and politicians. After Haugen´s leaked documents were in the media, it was clear to all that the critisism was also coming from inside the company.
Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, often in the media and a strong critic of the company, was not impressed by the change to Meta saying the company is “a global surveillance and propaganda machine for boosting authoritarian regimes and destroying civil society.”
Social media colleague Twitter on the official Twitter account jokingly said it has big news – the company is still Twitter: “lol jk still twitter”.
Zuckerberg referred to that he had studied Classics explaining that Meta is Greek for Beyond. Greek media could not resist in a meme indicate that he sounded as convincing as the father in success movie My Fat Greek Wedding who explains everything with:
“It´s a Greek word”.
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