Facebook Inc, under fire from regulators and lawmakers over its business practices, is planning to rebrand itself with a new name that focuses on the metaverse, The Verge reported on Tuesday.
The name change is to be announced next week, the Web site reported, citing a source with direct knowledge of the matter.
The move would likely position the flagship app as one of many products under a parent company overseeing brands, such as Instagram and WhatsApp, the report said.
Photo: AFP
Google adopted such a structure when it reorganized into a holding company called Alphabet Inc in 2015.
Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg since July has been talking up the metaverse, a digital world where people can move between devices and communicate in a virtual environment.
The firm has invested heavily in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), developing hardware such as its Oculus VR headsets, and working on AR glasses and wristband technologies.
The buzz word, first coined in Neal Stephenson’s dystopian 1992 novel Snow Crash, is popular in Silicon Valley and has been referenced by other tech firms, such as Microsoft.
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 firm’s annual Connect conference on Thursday next week, but it could be unveiled sooner, The Verge said.
The move would come at a time when 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 whistle-blower forming the basis for a US Senate hearing last week.
Separately, Facebook has agreed to pay up to US$14.25 million to settle civil claims by the US government that the social media company discriminated against US workers and breached federal recruitment rules, US officials said on Tuesday.
The two related settlements were announced by the US departments of Justice and Labor and confirmed by Facebook.
The justice department in December last year filed a lawsuit accusing Facebook of giving hiring preferences to temporary workers, including those who hold H-1B visas that let companies temporarily employ foreign workers in certain specialty occupations.
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
Japan and the Philippines yesterday signed a defense pact that would allow the tax-free provision of ammunition, fuel, food and other necessities when their forces stage joint training to boost deterrence against China’s growing aggression in the region and to bolster their preparation for natural disasters. Japan has faced increasing political, trade and security tensions with China, which was angered by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remark that a Chinese attack on Taiwan would be a survival-threatening situation for Japan, triggering a military response. Japan and the Philippines have also had separate territorial conflicts with Beijing in the East and South China
A strong cold air mass is expected to arrive tonight, bringing a change in weather and a drop in temperature, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The coldest time would be early on Thursday morning, with temperatures in some areas dipping as low as 8°C, it said. Daytime highs yesterday were 22°C to 24°C in northern and eastern Taiwan, and about 25°C to 28°C in the central and southern regions, it said. However, nighttime lows would dip to about 15°C to 16°C in central and northern Taiwan as well as the northeast, and 17°C to 19°C elsewhere, it said. Tropical Storm Nokaen, currently
PAPERS, PLEASE: The gang exploited the high value of the passports, selling them at inflated prices to Chinese buyers, who would treat them as ‘invisibility cloaks’ The Yilan District Court has handed four members of a syndicate prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and two months for their involvement in a scheme to purchase Taiwanese passports and resell them abroad at a massive markup. A Chinese human smuggling syndicate purchased Taiwanese passports through local criminal networks, exploiting the passports’ visa-free travel privileges to turn a profit of more than 20 times the original price, the court said. Such criminal organizations enable people to impersonate Taiwanese when entering and exiting Taiwan and other countries, undermining social order and the credibility of the nation’s
RSS