Regulators and lawmakers have placed Facebook Inc under intense scrutiny over its business practices.
The social media giant is now planning to rebrand itself with a new group name that focuses on the metaverse, the Verge reported on Tuesday.
The name change is expected to be announced next week.
READ ALSO: Newcastle United Sack Head Coach Steve Bruce
According to reports, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg is believed to have been engaging in conversations around the metaverse, a digital world where people can move between different devices and communicate in a virtual environment.
In July, the group invested heavily in virtual reality and augmented reality, developing hardware such as its Oculus VR headsets and working on AR glasses and wristband technologies.
The move would likely position the flagship app as one of many products under a parent company overseeing brands such as Instagram and WhatsApp.
Google adopted such a structure when it reorganized into a holding company called Alphabet in 2015.
READ ALSO: Insecurity: University of Ibadan Mourns As two Students Die on Sunday.
Facebook has however insisted that, it does not comment on “rumor or speculation.”
If true, the rebranding would make sense as the core Facebook business becomes less important to the group and it seeks to revamp an image tarnished by regulatory and legal scrutiny of how it handles user safety and hate speech, analysts said.
Internet analyst James Cordwell at Atlantic Equities was quoted as saying that Facebook as a brand is probably not the greatest, given all of the events of the last three years or so.
Facebook is under wide-ranging scrutiny from global lawmakers and regulators over its content moderation practices and harms linked to its platforms, with internal documents leaked by a whistleblower forming the basis for a U.S. Senate hearing last week.
READ ALSO: Traditional Vacancy:13 years After,OYO State Govt Installs New King for Fiditi Land
Last month, Facebook appointed Andrew Bosworth, who heads up the social media company’s augmented reality and virtual reality efforts, including products like its Oculus Quest VR headset, as chief technology officer.
Metaverse, first coined in a dystopian novel three decades earlier, is popular in Silicon Valley and has been referenced by other tech firms such as Microsoft.
The popular children’s game Roblox describes itself as a metaverse company. Epic Games’ Fortnite is also considered to be part of the metaverse.
Zuckerberg plans to talk about the name change at the company’s annual Connect conference on Oct. 28, but it could be unveiled sooner, the Verge said.
©ControlTV2021.
