Soon after Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook is rebranding itself as “Meta” in an effort to move past being a scandal-plagued social network to its virtual reality vision for the future, social media, especially Twitter was flooded with jokes, memes and jibes on the name change. "Meta" was the most-searched keyword on Google and the top trending hashtag on Twiter.
“FAANG is now MANGA,” tweeted Steph Sher, referring to FAANG, an acronym for American tech companies Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet (formerly known as Google).
Many Twitter users termed "Meta" as an acronym which stands of "Mark Evading True Accountability".
Taking a sharp jibe at the social media giant, Democratic politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has in the past grilled Mark Zuckerberg during a hearing in the US House of Representatives over Facebook’s policies, termed Facebook a “cancer to democracy”.
Though Meta will just be the name of the parent company, and the app will still be called Facebook, some observers were concerned.
"How can you tell anyone that you're on Meta. Sounds like a drug," wrote @careaware.
“Meta as in ‘we are a cancer to democracy metastasizing into a global surveillance and propaganda machine for boosting authoritarian regimes and destroying civil society… for profit!’” the 32-year-old tweeted.
US hamburger chain Wendy's tweeting shortly after the news of Facebook’s name change: "Changing name to Meat."
Remaining true to its word, the chain did just that - but only on its Twitter profile. And video gaming brand Xbox replied on an equally witty note: "Nice to meat you."
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp - which are used by billions around the world - will keep their names under the rebranding critics have called an effort to distract from the platform's dysfunction.
Here are more memes on Facebook's name change to Meta:
Facebook has been battling one of its most serious crises ever since former employee Frances Haugen leaked reams of internal studies showing executives knew of their sites' potential for harm, prompting a renewed US push for regulation.
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