Facebook Inc. Renames Itself Meta After Scandal
BLUE PLANET STUDIO/SHUTTERSTOCK
After years of heavy criticism and what experts say may have been the tech giant’s biggest scandal yet, Facebook began a rebranding process to earn back consumer trust, starting with its name.
The tech giant changed its name to Meta amid international outcry following the leak of “The Facebook Papers”, a collection of previously undisclosed internal documents, by former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen.
The Facebook Papers revealed that the company knew in many cases usage of its platform had damaging consequences for consumers and society, including amplifying mis/disinformation and the promotion of harmful body image ideals for specifically teenage girls.
Critics worldwide took the papers as confirmation of the company’s profit-before-people practices and unethical activity.
Haugen leaked thousands of documents to 17 news organizations in the United States, as well as a separate coalition of European outlets later gaining access and producing their own analyses. This was a unique collaborative investigation, as news media on both sides of the Atlantic coordinated their publication time to be 7:00 AM EDT on Monday, Oct. 25.
“Facebook Inc. knows, in acute detail, that its platforms are riddled with flaws that cause harm, often in ways only the company fully understands.” wrote the Wall Street Journal, introducing their extensive investigation entitled “the facebook files”. The documents offer perhaps the clearest picture thus far of how broadly Facebook’s problems are known inside the company, up to the chief executive himself.
The documents showed that Facebook’s senior management, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, knew with evidentiary proof of a constellation of harms their platform was causing globally. Authoritarian crackdowns in Vietnam. Violent anti-Muslim rhetoric in India. Mis/disinformation in the 2020 American presidential election. Facebook and its executive staff knew how the platform was weaponized, but instead of doing something to curb these dangers, they went along with it.
The papers also revealed the personal implications of using the platform. Facebook’s researchers found that 1 in 8 users exhibited use behaviours that impacted their careers, sleep, and social and family life. The company said they give users the ability to take control of this with built-in mechanisms to monitor their use.
“I used to work at Facebook and joined because I think Facebook has the potential to bring out the best in us. But I am here today because I believe that Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division, weaken our democracy and much more.” Haugen told members of Congress in her October 4 testimony to the US Senate Sub-Committee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security.
“The company’s leadership knows ways to make Facebook and Instagram safer and won’t make the necessary changes because they have put their immense profits before people.” Haugen continued, going to call for congressional action to reign the company in, and defend her coming forward as an effort to help, not harm, her former employer.
“When we realized tobacco companies were hiding the harms it caused, the government took action. When we figured out cars were safer with seat belts, the government took action. And today, the government is taking action against companies that hid evidence on opioids. I implore you to do the same here.”
After weeks of heavy public outcry, the company followed in the footsteps of many corporations facing PR disasters and rebranded itself “Meta Platforms”, doing business as Meta.