Tech Overlord Mark Zuckerberg Welcomes Us to the Metaverse

On Thursday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company had rechristened itself Meta in reference to the "metaverse," or a whole new virtual universe composed of virtual and augmented reality technology and more. So basically, a huge new virtual platform controlled by the Zuck, even if that's, arguably, already our reality. Talk about fitting given Meta's dual allusion to the self-referential concept.

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"Right now, our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can't possibly represent everything that we're doing today, let alone in the future," Zuckerberg said in a statement. "Over time, I hope we are seen as a metaverse company, and I want to anchor our work and our identity on what we're building towards."

The patriotic, sunscreen-loving surfer then went on to explain the company would now be "metaverse-first, not Facebook-first," meaning that you no longer need a Facebook to access their new "family of apps" and "future platforms."

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Zuckerberg added, "The metaverse encompasses both the social experiences and future technology. As we broaden our vision, it's time for us to adopt a new brand."

In order to usher in this new era of technocracy, Meta has created an official metaverse-focused product team that is planning to hire 10,000 new employees in Europe over the next five years. However, it has yet to be seen how government officials and regulators will react to the news, especially since they've already made their issues with Facebook's past handling of abuse, its shady algorithm and internet hegemony pretty clear.

In the meantime though, read more about Meta here.

Photo via Getty / Justin Sullivan