Facebook Changed Its Name To Meta & Mark Zuckerberg Is Getting Roasted For It

The next time your uncle tries to take you down the rabbit hole of a conspiracy theory that he found on the internet, don't blame Facebook.

Blame Meta.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta will be the new name of his company on Thursday, after low-key telegraphing the change for months.

"Starting today, our company is now Meta," Zuckerberg said during a Facebook Connect event on Thursday.

"Today we are seen as a social media company," he added. "But in our DNA we are a company that builds technology to connect people."

The change will apply to Facebook Inc., but it won't affect the social media platform. That means that the Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram apps on your phone will stay the same, but their parent company will be called something different.

Meta will also bundle its so-called "metaverse" properties into a sister brand to its social media apps. The metaverse is a techy term for the alternate world of virtual reality — one where Zuckerberg is a surfer dude, apparently.

Meta will be the official company behind Facebook, just as Alphabet is the official company behind Google, Fitbit and YouTube.

But Facebook's status update was not well-received on Thursday, with internet users going in hard on Zuckerberg's new name. Many were quick to point out that the rebrand is coming on the heels of some bad news for Facebook, including a whistleblower and the so-called "Facebook Papers," which accuse the company of putting profits over people and democracy.

Many were quick to point out that someone else has pulled this move in the past. He used to be known as NBA star Ron Artest, but he legally changed his name to Metta World Peace (and later, Metta Sandiford-Artest).

Maybe it's time for Metta to change his name to Facebook?