Facebook is ready for a big change.
On Thursday, Oct. 28, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that his tech company is changing its name to Meta, while the social media platform will remain Facebook.
According to a press release, Meta aims to bring together the company's apps and technologies under one new brand. Meta's focus will be to bring the "metaverse" to life and help people connect, find communities and grow businesses.
And for those wondering, the "metaverse" is described as a set of interconnected digital spaces that lets you do things you can't do in the physical world.
The news was announced at Connect 2021, the company's virtual hardware event.
As you likely could have guessed, the Internet couldn't stay quiet when the name change was revealed early this morning. "This all happened because Zuckerberg never meta girl until college," one Twitter user shared. Another user shared a photo of former Los Angeles Lakers player Metta World Peace with the message, "The only Meta we acknowledge."
Facebook first launched in 2004 and Meta now owns apps like Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp that influence the way users communicate around the world.
But according to the company, Meta is "moving beyond 2D screens toward immersive experiences like augmented and virtual reality to help build the next evolution in social technology."
The news comes as Facebook continues to be put under the microscope. It is facing legislative and regulatory scrutiny in many parts of the world following revelations in the Facebook Papers.
The Facebook Papers is a collaboration between 17 American news organizations including the Associated Press.
Journalists from multiple newsrooms worked together to gain access to thousands of pages of internal company documents obtained by Frances Haugen, the former Facebook product manager-turned-whistleblower.
Earlier this month, Frances testified in front of Congress and a Senate Committee about Facebook's practices and decisions.