A new era with a new name for Facebook? According to the specialized site The Verge, the Californian company, which crosses a period of turbulence, should announce next week the creation of a new parent company overseeing its various services (the social network Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, etc.).
The goal ? Look to the future, in particular the “multiverse”, this connected universe mixing virtual and augmented realities, which Mark Zuckerberg considers as the future of the Web. But its detractors see it as a not very subtle sleight of hand to move away from a name that has become toxic after repeated controversies.
According to The Verge, the new name is expected to be unveiled at the Connect conference on Thursday, October 28. It is jealously guarded within the management and would be semantically linked to the multiverse and to Horizon, the virtual social platform developed by Facebook.
Facebook would not be the first to do so. In 2015, Google created the Alphabet structure (on which Google, Waymo, Deepmind, Verily, etc.) depend. But the name never caught on with the general public. Snapchat also renamed itself Snap in 2016.
” Change the subject “
“Facebook thinks changing its name can help it change the subject,” an anti-Facebook association, which ironically calls itself the “Real Facebook Oversight Board”, said in a statement. “It’s a sign that they are willing to do anything to distract from their failure to clean up their hate-filled platforms.” Whatever they call themselves, the problem remains unresolved, (…) they need real and independent regulation, immediately ”, continues the association.
“If you give a new name to a product that doesn’t work anymore, people will quickly understand that the new brand has the same issues,” tweeted Benedict Evans, an independent analyst specializing in Silicon Valley. “A better approach would be to solve the problem, and then create a new brand that reflects the new product,” he continued.
The company, which continues scandals for years, is going through a particularly difficult pass since France Haugen, a former whistleblower employee, leaked internal press documents and accused the platform of passing “Profits before security” of its users. Rarely, elected Republicans and Democrats all seem to agree to try to regulate the company. And a name change won’t change that.