Mark Zuckerberg Wants You To Call Facebook “Meta” Now, And Twitter Is Roasting Him

There’s a major change coming to one of the biggest corporations in social media. On Thursday, Oct. 28, during the Facebook Connect 2021 keynote, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the Facebook Company is changing its corporation’s name to Meta. Shortly after the announcement broke, people began tweeting about the name change with mixed feelings and taking virtual hits at the CEO. These tweets and memes about Meta, Facebook’s new name, will have you laughing out loud as you try to keep it all straight.

The keynote unveiled the Facebook Company’s new corporate name — Meta — which represents the company’s various social media apps (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc.) and new technologies (e.g. the metaverse) under one single brand. Facebook the app will still exist as Facebook. According to the company’s Oct. 28 news release titled “Introducing Meta: A Social Technology Company,” Meta’s focus is to “bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities, and grow businesses.” Zuckerberg said in the keynote that Meta is “a Greek word meaning beyond,” and he was inspired by the Classics when coming up with the name. The change hinges on the CEO’s determination that the company is so much more than its family of apps, and the keynote previewed a virtual work with gaming, concerts, work set-ups and more that Meta will grow into.

In Zuckerberg’s Oct. 28 Founder’s Letter, the CEO elaborated on the goal of Meta as a company. “The defining quality of the metaverse will be a feeling of presence — like you are right there with another person or in another place. Feeling truly present with another person is the ultimate dream of social technology,” he wrote.

Unfortunately, for Zuckerberg, many people who heard the announcement were not as excited about the new moniker. Tweets and memes about Meta immediately began rolling in.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey made his feelings known by tweeting the definition of meta (and seemingly took a shot at the “self-referential” Meta CEO):

There were plenty of tweets about the new name change, and a lot of people think “Meta” sounds a bit pretentious:

A new name means a new world to destroy:

One person says it’s basically turning society into an Avengers and Fortnite crossover:

The word meta will never be the same:

You can actually still poke on Facebook (if poking is still a thing) since the app itself isn’t getting a name change, but this tweet still lands:

Justin Timberlake, who played Sean Parker in The Social Network, was also immediately turned into a meme. It was actually perfect, because Twitter users chose the scene where JT’s Parker, one of Facebook’s founders, tells Zuckerberg to drop the “The” from “The Facebook”:

Meta puns about Meta, because why not:

Don’t forget about this the random (mistaken?) product placement for Sweet Baby Ray’s:

Of course, many people can’t help but notice the name change follows a slew of controversies surrounding the company after Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified to Congress on Oct. 5. Haugen accused the company of valuing profits more than ensuring safety on the Facebook platform. Facebook said to CNBC and other outlets in a statement at the time that it “[didn’t] agree with her characterization of the many issues she testified about.”

Elite Daily reached out to Meta for comment on the reactions to the name change and its timing, but the company declined to provide additional comment beyond the Oct. 28 announcement.

With a new name and new metaverse on the horizon, it seems Meta is here to stay whether Twitter likes it or not.