McNamee reminds the public about potential felonies committed by Facebook.
As part of its rollout of a virtual reality space called the metaverse, Facebook announced Thursday that it had changed its name to Meta.
Early Facebook investor and Elevation Partners co-founder Roger McNamee revealed on “The Claman Countdown” that the rebrand was not a long-term project and intended to distract from whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony.
The statement should be kept in mind by everyone – this isn’t something that has been on their minds for a very long time.
They are attempting to divert attention from the inevitable backlash that the whistleblower has caused by providing evidence of Facebook‘s irresponsible management and potential felonies committed in the pursuit of profit.”
THE COMPANY DEVELOPS A METAVERSE AS IT UNVEILS A NEW NAME
McNamee alleges Facebook is trying to distract journalists and policymakers while shielding CEO Mark Zuckerberg from accountability for “all the harm” he’s caused. Journalists and policymakers should keep an eye on the evidence released by the whistleblower.
Those are internal documents created by the best people inside Facebook and circulated to all employees, records that management deliberately disregarded for the sake of profit, disregarding the public interest, if you will, he said.Â
McNamee ripped into Facebook in a TIME op-ed, warning that the documents are the “inevitable result of a dangerous design” and that Congress turning its back on this case would result in “catastrophes” that are beyond repair.
McNamee argues that Facebook undermines democracy by building a business model with two characteristics: having “perfect” information about a network of three billion people and using a recommendation algorithm to “manipulate our behavior.”
Because of this, many scams and crazy ideas have entered the mainstream, and as a result, half of the country is unable to communicate. “We have no shared understanding of what it means to be an American. And that is horribly dangerous. It’s not good for anybody, left or right.”
A Silicon Valley investor explained that while creating virtual reality has been a Big Tech dream for the last 25 years, Zuckerberg’s invasive approach by controlling the entire environment will allow the company to “intrude” even further on the intimate parts of our lives.
According to a Consumer Reports survey of 2,263 U.S. adults conducted in August, 63% of Facebook/Instagram users reported being misled. Furthermore, only 41% of U.S. online adults polled by Forrester say they trust the former Facebook.
With its name reinvention, Facebook joins a long list of tech companies that have rebranded. Alphabet Inc. became Google, Apple Computer Inc. became Apple Inc., and Snapchat Inc. became SNAP.
While the latter two changes simplified messaging, the Google-Alphabet change continues to confuse consumers.
Founder of Apple’s “Think Different” campaign and the man responsible for putting the “i” in iPhone, Ken Segall, says a name change won’t change anything.
“They have mountains of problems to handle,” he said. “Changing the hearts and minds of billions of users is not enough. A fundamental organizational change is required.”
It could all blow up in Facebook’s face and become a “New Coke” moment. In the mid-’80s, Coca-Cola Co.’s KO campaign to give an informal name to a new formula for its most popular soft drink was unsuccessful, leading to its discontinuation in July 2002.
 The social-networking company is being slammed for its treatment of data and content and for ignoring clear internal signs that the platform is harmful – especially for children.
Senate Democratic leaders Richard Blumenthal, Edward Markey, and David Cicilline, D-RI, have called for legislation going after Facebook.
The Federal Trade Commission is reportedly looking into a new investigation. The New York Times commented that Mark Zuckerberg’s time as CEO is over.
