facebook Tag

Alex Heath:

Facebook is planning to change its company name next week to reflect its focus on building the metaverse, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

The coming name change, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to talk about at the company’s annual Connect conference on October 28th, but could unveil sooner, is meant to signal the tech giant’s ambition to be known for more than social media and all the ills that entail. The rebrand would likely position the blue Facebook app as one of many products under a parent company overseeing groups like Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, and more. A spokesperson for Facebook declined to comment for this story.

This actually makes a lot of sense for them. If you’re gonna be a conglomerate (by buying up or cloning the features of any company that is in any way related to or a threat to you) then at least be clear about it. I’m guessing Mark Zuckerberg hopes this might also:

• Allow him to more effectively continue hiding from the consequences of his actions
• Make him a harder target for government investigation/action
• Put some distance between him and the tarnished Facebook name
• Position him as the CEO and leader of the entire “metaverse” he’s trying to build

Vlad Savov from Bloomberg:

The report that Facebook Inc. plans to change its corporate name prompted a flurry of online speculation as industry followers rushed to register their guesses.

[…]

“Meta” is another contender put forward by, among others, Samidh Chakrabarti, the company’s former civic integrity chief. The web address meta.com currently redirects to meta.org, the home of a biomedical research discovery tool developed under the stewardship of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which is co-founded by the Facebook CEO. That suggests Zuckerberg has a head start on any other contender looking to secure the ultimate name for a metaverse firm.

I’m seeing a lot of people speculate that Meta is the new name. I’ve also seen either Horizon, which is the name of one of their VR projects, or just FB. Either way, I’m hoping this changes nothing and the company ends up being split into parts and the executives made responsible for the damage they’ve caused.

Emily Glazer at The Wall Street Journal:

Facebook Inc. has slowed the rollout of new products in recent days, people familiar with the matter said, amid media reports and congressional hearings related to a trove of internal documents showing harms from its platforms.

Executives at the social-media company have also put a hold on some work on existing products while more than a dozen people are involved in conducting “reputational reviews” to examine how Facebook may be criticized and to ensure products don’t adversely impact children, the people said.

It seems a little late for that, doesn’t it?

Facebook has been tightening the reins on what information is shared internally over the past few weeks, the people said. A team within the company is examining all in-house research that could potentially damage Facebook’s image if made public, some of the people said.

This sounds like the “shredding evidence” phase of their corporate response.

From The New York Times today:

But Mr. Zuckerberg has also been blunt about Facebook’s feelings on Apple. “We increasingly see Apple as one of our biggest competitors,” he said in an earnings call this year.

Even on that point, Mr. Cook has disagreed.

“I’m not focused on Facebook,” he told The Times this month. “I think that we compete in some things. But no, if I’m asked who our biggest competitors are, they would not be listed.”

iOS 14.5 just dropped.

I need that ability to unlock the phone with my watch when I’m out with a mask. This is the most excited I’ve been about an iOS feature in a very long time.

Some other notes about this release:

• This is the one that adds App Tracking Transparency, the thing that Facebook is really upset about. 🙂
• Siri doesn’t default to a female voice anymore (you have to pick a voice when you setup the phone). Defaulting to female voices for virtual assistants was a mistake, so I’m glad they’re trying to address it.
• More emoji of course! There’s always more emoji.

So now that Facebook is continuing to tighten their grip on Oculus VR headsets, here are all the circumstances where you might lose access to your Oculus account (and all your purchases).

1. You refuse to create a Facebook account.
2. If you have multiple VR headsets attached to one account.
3. If you decide to delete your Facebook account at any point.
4. If your Facebook account is suspended for any reason, including no reason at all.
   
   

From a Kotaku article published today:

Now combine this knowledge with the words spoken by Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth, Vice President of Augmented and Virtual Reality at Facebook last week, when he said “I think people should continue to make sure their Facebook accounts are in good standing before they buy the headset. They can work through those problems before they do it.”

Are people really still interested in buying these things at this point?

Just came across an article about Kim Kardashian West freezing her Facebook/Instagram accounts to protest the spreading of hate, propaganda and misinformation.

This comes not long after a 6,600 word memo from a Facebook whistleblower was leaked where the author describes the company’s failure to act on evidence that people have been abusing the platform to undermine elections and political affairs around the world.

I haven’t used either Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp in years. The company has way too much of an effect on the world to be run by people who are this severely lacking in empathy or morality. I’m glad Kardashian West is bringing a little more attention to the company’s failures.

From Polygon

An important part of this partnership, Spencer stressed, is the integration of Project xCloud technology onto Facebook. He has previously said that Microsoft’s biggest competitors when it comes to streaming games from the cloud are Amazon and Google. This partnership with Facebook makes sense, strengthening the xCloud platform with access to a massive global audience. Sharma said fans should expect to see click-and-play experiences on the social media platform in the future.

Microsoft announcing shutting Mixer down half way through WWDC was a really bad look. And choosing Facebook Gaming as the destination/partnership is just terrible. It sounds like they didn’t really have much of an option based on the goals they set for themselves, but this still a really bad outcome. Also, integrating xCloud and Facebook just makes it something I’ll never use.

Very disappointing.

From The Verge:

The virtual walkout comes on the heels of a decision from Facebook not to take any action against a series of controversial posts from Trump last week, including one that seemed to threaten violence against protestors by saying, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Twitter determined that the same message violated its rules against the glorification of violence last week, limiting the ability to view, like, reply, and retweet the post on its platform.

Mark Zuckerberg is a coward. He once again made a terrible decision because he’ll never stand for anything right, he’ll just ensure Facebook’s survival as a engagement machine no matter what the cost. He should have resigned a long time ago.

I’m glad some of the employees are trying to do something. It’s too late, but it’s good to know there is some pushback to Zuckerberg’s bullshit.

It always sucks when things make it harder for people to communicate, but I’m having a hard time feeling bad about this happening to Facebook.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/24/21193094/facebook-coronavirus-covid-19-messaging-service-reliable-strain-outages

So Facebook is filled with cowards unable to stand for what’s right. I been knew that.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/02/20/facebook-republican-shift/