Facebook's move to rebrand itself in order to dodge additional criticism will not relieve the company from responsibility to provide a response to the multiple controversies it is facing, the director of SHEQSY mobile app, Hays Bailey, told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st October, 2021) Facebook's move to rebrand itself in order to dodge additional criticism will not relieve the company from responsibility to provide a response to the multiple controversies it is facing, the director of SHEQSY mobile app, Hays Bailey, told Sputnik.
On Wednesday, the US tech blog The Verge reported, citing a source, that Facebook intents to change its company name next week to reflect its plans to build a metaverse a shared virtual environment that makes online interactions much more like communicating in person. A Facebook spokesperson refused to comment on the rumor, the blog said.
"Changing the holding company's name is an overdue decision, since Facebook has long been more than just its eponymous blue social media app. But the timing of the change is suspect," Bailey said.
Facebook is trying to distanсe itself from controversy tied to the social network itself and Instagram, the expert said.
The Wall Street Journal recently published a series of reports showing that the company was aware of many issues on its platforms, from a toxic environment for young girls to insufficient response to organ trafficking on the network, but did not do enough to address them. The WSJ reports were largely based on internal documents provided by former Facebook employee Frances Haugen, who recently testified before Congress. In response to her testimony, Facebook CEO Marc Zuckerberg said that a "false picture" of the company was being painted.
"No amount of rebranding will, at this point, exonerate Facebook from the moral responsibility of resolving the controversy it is facing," Bailey added.
Founder of the online learning company My GRE Exam Preparation, William Cohen, agrees that Facebook may be considering a name change because it is "no longer merely a social networking platform", but its name is still associated with the network alone.
However, the "bad press" over "dodgy rules, data theft, and other anti-democratic activities" may also play a role in this decision, Cohen believes.
"This is the prime reason why Facebook is looking for a fresh start, though it's not changing it's preset ideology, but wants to be a little different than the old Facebook," Cohen said.
Facebook is not the first tech company to change its company name as its ambitions expand. In 2015, Google reorganized entirely under a holding called Alphabet.
