Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) had some sharp words for Facebook’s decision to change its corporate name to Meta — a reference to a Facebook “metaverse.”
“Meta as in ‘we are a cancer to democracy metastasizing into a global surveillance and propaganda machine for boosting authoritarian regimes and destroying civil society… for profit!’” the New York progressive wrote in a tweet.
Ocasio-Cortez quote-tweeted a news outlet that had included a video of the Facebook announcement in its message.
Earlier on Thursday, founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company formerly known as Facebook would be rebranded to Meta. He said the old name of Facebook did not “encompass everything we do.”
“Right now, our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can’t possibly represent everything that we’re doing today, let alone in the future,” Zuckerberg said.
It is a part of a larger pitch to create a metaverse — a virtually interactive experience that would be immersive for users.
The name change also comes as the company faces increasing scrutiny from Washington amid a series of damaging revelations about the company’s practices.
A series in The Wall Street Journal detailed how Facebook allegedly knew that Instagram, which is part of the company, was harmful at times to its younger users and did not adequately address anti-COVID-19 rhetoric on its platform, among other concerns.
Those revelations were informed by leaked documents given to the newspaper by former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen, who has also testified in front of Congress.
Since then, other news outlets have detailed their own revelations about the company, including a Washington Post report on how a Facebook formula placed more weight on posts that received angry emojis than “likes.” An Associated Press report found that Facebook had a difficult time trying to control hateful content in India.
Facebook is also facing pressure from lawmakers an antitrust issues, who argue the company should be broken up given its size and power.