Facebook Inc., despite all of the issues that it is going through, has changed its name to Meta Platforms Inc., or Meta for short, according to the Associated Press. With this announcement, CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes that it is a reflection of its commitment to creating a new surround-yourself technology named “metaverse.”

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However, critics have said the company is using this as a distraction from the Facebook Papers. According to an Associated Press report, Facebook Papers is an aggregation of leaked documents about the company that was obtained by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen and later accessed by journalists. 

In those documents, it highlights how Facebook puts money above getting rid of hate, racism and misinformation. It is arguably the company’s biggest controversy since it was founded in 2004. 

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Marketing consultant Laura Ries compared Facebook’s decision to BP rebranding itself to Beyond Petroleum to avoid the narrative that the oil company hurt the environment. 

“Facebook is the world’s social media platform and they are being accused of creating something that is harmful to people and society,” Ries said on The Washington Post. “They can’t walk away from the social network with a new corporate name and talk of a future metaverse.” 

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The Facebook app, along with Instagram and WhatsApp, will not change their name. According to the Associated Press, Zuckerberg describes the metaverse as a “virtual environment” that people can go inside of, rather than just staring at on a screen. 

His goal for the metaverse is to reach at least a billion people within the next 10 years, with hopes that it would create jobs for creators.