Twitter users mocked Facebook’s name change, revealed on Thursday by the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The decision was seen by many users as a dubious measure to deal with the uproar caused by speculation about the social platform's moderation policies and data collecting, especially after former product manager, Frances Haugen, leaked internal documents and told US Congress that the company was allegedly aware that it inflicted harm on the mental health of teenagers, but did not do much to prevent the spread of content promoting hate and division, putting profit over users' safety instead.
Other users simply found the new name bizarre, coming up with their own meanings behind it.
Some were already feeling a little nostalgic.
Mark Zuckerberg announced the rebranding at the annual Facebook Connect 2021 conference on 28 October. The main goal of turning Facebook into Meta is the development of the so-called “metaverse," which is supposed to bring people together in new ways in the virtual world.
Zuckerberg noted that the company wants to be associated with the "metaverse", and not just with the social network Facebook, as it had been until now.