Facebook is planning to change its name, report says

(CNN) — Facebook is readying to rebrand itself with a caller sanction focused connected the metaverse, the Verge reported connected Tuesday, arsenic the tech elephantine comes under occurrence from regulators astir the world over its business practices.

The institution plans to denote the caller sanction adjacent week, the Verge reported, citing a root with nonstop cognition of the matter. Facebook wants to beryllium known for much than societal media, according to the tech publication.

Facebook does not remark connected rumor oregon speculation, a institution spokesperson said successful effect to a question astir the imaginable sanction change.

In summation to its flagship societal media network, Facebook besides owns Instagram and WhatsApp. A sanction alteration could presumption the 3 mega platforms nether an umbrella brand, akin to the operation utilized by Google, which sits nether genitor institution Alphabet.

The sanction alteration whitethorn bespeak Facebook’s direction. The metaverse refers to efforts to harvester virtual and augmented world technologies successful a caller online realm.

The thought is to make a abstraction akin to the internet, wherever users (via integer avatars) tin locomotion astir and interact with 1 different successful existent time. In theory, users could beryllium astir a virtual gathering array with distant colleagues, and past locomotion implicit to a virtual Starbucks to conscionable up with a friend.

Facebook announced earlier this week that it would prosecute 10,000 radical successful Europe to enactment connected creating the metaverse.

A rebranding could beryllium portion of an effort to overhaul Facebook’s estimation pursuing a tsunami of atrocious quality linked to misinformation connected its platforms, contented moderation failures and revelations astir the antagonistic effect its products person connected immoderate users’ intelligence health.

Frances Haugen, a whistleblower who utilized to enactment astatine Facebook arsenic a merchandise manager, testified earlier this period that the institution is alert that its platforms are utilized to dispersed hatred and misinformation but has failed to instrumentality enactment to forestall it. Facebook’s leaders person travel nether occurrence for allegedly choosing nett implicit health, and lawmakers person drawn comparisons to Big Tobacco.

Facebook has aggressively pushed backmost against the claims, calling galore of them “misleading” and arguing that its apps bash much bully than harm.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to sermon the sanction alteration astatine the company’s yearly Connect league connected Oct. 28, according to the Verge.

A comparatively tiny fig of large companies person changed established brands. Kentucky Fried Chicken shortened its sanction to KFC, Japanese car marque Datsun became Nissan and the World Wrestling Federation became World Wrestling Entertainment. The societal media institution Snapchat rebranded arsenic Snap successful 2016 to bespeak its foray into hardware.

Some high-profile sanction changes person followed ungraded oregon controversy. Philip Morris, the shaper of Marlboro, changed its sanction to Altria, for example, and ValuJet became AirTran aft 1 of its planes crashed successful 1996.