Experts Say Facebook’s New Name Won’t Solve All Its Problems

The tech big often called Facebook will quickly change its identify to “Meta” to mirror all of its manufacturers, however consultants say the rebranding will not make a distinction with the issues that plague the platform. 

After weeks of rumors a couple of identify change, Facebook final week debuted its official new identify as Meta, a nod to the shift it is taking to its new metaverse. The firm is actually making massive adjustments, however customers could also be left questioning if these adjustments will deal with the extra vital points at play on the subject of Facebook. 

“Addressing such problems as mis- and disinformation, extremism, incitement to violence, and hateful speech will require more than a new name; it will require a rethinking of Facebook’s fundamental design and its engagement-driven advertising business model,” Paul Barrett, deputy director of the New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, instructed Lifewire in an electronic mail. 

Facebook Becomes Meta

Between information breaches, compromises in privateness, algorithms that management what we see and do not see, and focused advertisements that typically can be downright creepy, Facebook’s popularity hasn’t precisely been the most effective over time. 

However, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated the corporate can have some new priorities in its future.

“From now on, we will be metaverse-first, not Facebook-first. That means that over time you won’t need a Facebook account to use our other services,” Zuckerberg wrote in his letter in regards to the announcement. 

“As our new brand starts showing up in our products, I hope people around the world come to know the Meta brand and the future we stand for.”

Zuckerberg defined that the metaverse can be like one other world laid on high of the true one, calling it an “embodied Internet.”

Still, consultants say it isn’t that simple to overlook all the issues customers have come throughout on Facebook over the previous decade. 

“Zuckerberg and his lieutenants can’t shed the Facebook albatross with a clever brand adjustment,” Barrett stated. “It’s past time for meaningful self-regulation combined with carefully designed government oversight.”

Facebook’s issues are in all probability sufficient for folks to go away in plenty (and folks have lately). But Barrett stated it is vital to notice that Facebook and its different platforms have established connections the world over that will be troublesome to chop ties with. 

“Facebook and its sister messaging services are popular all around the world, and in some countries [are] the main way people get access to the Internet,” he added. 

Social Media within the Metaverse 

So Facebook—er, Meta—is right here to remain. But consultants say it must do much more than change its identify to cater to what customers need in social media as of late. 

In a personal examine carried out by the social community Playsee, 86% of social media customers indicated they need to see extra genuine and fewer filtered content material that intently displays day by day and real-life experiences on social media. The examine additionally reveals that 60% agree that social media is turning into extra informal and fewer curated. 

“With many leading social media platforms built upon algorithms that promote highly curated and polished content, the social experience becomes overwhelmingly the same,” Rachel Chang, senior director of name and advertising at Playsee, instructed Lifewire in an electronic mail. 

“Similarly themed feeds or content would be pushed and recommended, creating a limited space for other creators to break through the noise.” 

Even so, different consultants assume Zuckerberg’s stake within the new metaverse may sign that social media as an entire is about to get its personal rebranding and turn into a extra immersive expertise. 

“It appears that Mark Zuckerberg expects social media—all social media—to gradually lose popularity,” Barrett stated. 

“That’s why he is investing so heavily in trying to make his company the leader in the new metaverse—an array of immersive technologies that are expected to go far beyond posting text and images on a common platform that amplifies that content.”

Barrett added that solely time will inform if the metaverse mannequin of social media can outshine the issues that have to be mounted. 

“Americans, broadly speaking, are growing weary of the endless series of episodes illustrating that Facebook is favoring growth and revenue generation over instituting necessary safeguards,” he stated.