Facebook is set to undergo a name change, according to reports.
Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg plans to reveal the parent company’s new name at its annual Connect conference on October 28, but it could be unveiled sooner, the Verge reported.
The corporation said it will change its name as it focuses on a ‘metaverse’ of different brands. Facebook Inc., which owns Instagram and WhatsApp, is working on Horizon Worlds, a virtual reality space including the virtual workspace Horizon Workrooms.
Facebook also wants to expand and says that it plans to recruit 10,000 jobs in Europe for the next five years.
Reports say that Facebook already has more than 10,000 employees who build consumer hardware like AR glasses. Zuckerberg believes will be as ubiquitous as smartphones.
However, reports say that the name change could also be because the company wants to distance itself from controversies Facebook has faced in the past several years.
It was accused of facilitating the spread of misinformation during the 2016 US presidential election, prompting a series of congressional hearings and policy changes, including the introduction of third-party fact-checkers and further transparency in political advertising.
In 2019, the Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook $5 billion for allowing 87 million US profiles to be harvested for information used for political advertising by British firm Cambridge Analytica.
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Some of the advertising was used to help the 2016 campaign of former president Donald Trump.
Most recently, former Facebook employee Frances Haugen released a trove of documents dubbed the ‘Facebook Files’ to the Wall Street Journal.
The internal research suggests that Facebook promoted divisiveness as a way to keep people on the site.
It also showed that the company knew Instagram harmed young girls’ body image and even tried to brainstorm ways to appeal to toddlers by ‘exploring playdates as a growth lever.’
However, Facebook says they won’t comment on rumors or speculation, a spokesperson said.
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