Enter the Zuckerverse? Social Media Churns With New Names for Facebook

Zuckerverse. Timesuck. Faceplant.

They’re just some of the recommendations being bandied round on-line following experiences that Facebook plans to rebrand itself with a brand new group title. The firm refused to touch upon rumor or hypothesis, in fact, however the Twitterati had no downside.

The debate careered from smart to screwball to unusual.

“Meta” was one of many extra sober trending recommendations, referring to Facebook’s reported need to imagine a reputation that focuses on the metaverse, a digital setting the place customers can hang around.

Bookface, Facegram, Facetagram, FreeFace, FreeTalk, World Changer.

On the wilder facet, Twitter person Dave Pell drew a comparability with musician Kanye West who just lately modified his title to “Ye”.

“It would be awesome if Facebook changes its name to Ye,” he mentioned.

Several humorous recommendations mirrored on-line hypothesis that the alleged rebrand was pushed by founder Mark Zuckerberg’s craving to make Facebook “cool” as soon as extra.

The platform has been abandoned by many youthful customers who’ve moved to apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, and has change into more and more populated by older folks.

“Teenage Wasteland”, one wit instructed.

“The Old People’s App because that’s what us younger people call it,” school pupil Vittoria Esteves instructed Reuters in Rome.

“Boomerville”, instructed Marco, referring to so-called child boomers born within the years following World War II.

‘Streisand impact’

The on-line naming feast was sparked by a report on the Verge tech web site {that a} newly named group would act as a father or mother for all the corporate’s manufacturers, together with Facebook itself, Instagram and WhatsApp, and replicate a concentrate on digital and augmented actuality.

An announcement is predicted subsequent week, in accordance with the report.

Many recommendations nonetheless mirrored the general public’s concern about how the corporate handles person security and hate speech. Internal paperwork leaked by a whistleblower shaped the premise for a US Senate listening to final week.

“Fakebook”, for instance. Tracebook.

Other folks had been sceptical whether or not a reputation change could be sufficient to detract from the rising authorized and regulatory scrutiny that has tarnished the corporate’s fame.

“It’s going to be the Barbra Streisand effect thing going on,” mentioned 20-year previous Glasgow pupil Thomas van der Hoven, referring to the phenomenon the place in search of to suppress one thing inadvertently turbo-charges common curiosity in it.

“So they’re going to try and change it, and then that’s just going to put the spotlight on the fact that they’re changing it. Why are they changing this?” he added. “So it’s probably going to spit back in their face at some point.”

© Thomson Reuters 2021