TORONTO -- If Facebook Inc.鈥檚 rebrand to 鈥淢eta鈥� was a clever ploy to distract users from ongoing crises the company is facing, it will have to try much harder, one expert says.
On Thursday, Facebook Inc. rebranded itself as Meta Platforms Inc., or simply Meta for short, to reflect the company鈥檚 commitment to growing the 鈥渕etaverse,鈥� according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. All the apps and programs Facebook has created will remain the same name.
Lindsay Broadhead, senior vice-president of communications and public affairs at the Toronto Regional Board of Trade, said if the company is trying to distance itself from the other issues it faces, a simple name change is not going to do it.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think you can dissociate Facebook from anything that it鈥檚 going to rebrand itself as quite yet,鈥� she told 麻豆传媒 Channel on Thursday. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be quite the task to disassociate the two.鈥�
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think the shadow that Facebook currently casts will ever be diminished until they actually deal with the challenges that they鈥檙e facing.鈥�
Earlier this week, the Facebook Papers, a series of leaked documents from the company, have portrayed the social media giant as more interested in profits than eliminating the hate, political division and misinformation that spreads on the website. The documents are considered the biggest crisis in Facebook鈥檚 history.
Broadhead questioned the timing of the rebrand, as most other companies would wait to resolve any legal issues or crises before making a change.
鈥淭his is somewhat unprecedented because the size of the organization, but usually the company would deal with (and) address some of the baggage that it鈥檚 carrying,鈥� she said.
With files from The Associated Press
