Meta Platforms has been around for some time now. Previously, it was known as Facebook (the company). This social media multinational technology company is named so often that you probably can’t spend a day without hearing about it or doing anything that doesn’t involve it. This makes a lot of sense given that Meta is part of the Big Five (also known as Big Tech) alongside Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft. Meta owns giants, such as Facebook (the social media platform), WhatsApp, and Instagram, as well as other platforms like Oculus and Giphy. The announcement of Meta was accompanied by the reveal of “the Metaverse”, a social service where you can interact with others via VR technology. This has generated a lot of discourse and controversy around the just rebranded tech giant.
Facebook was first introduced as FaceMash, a website available for Harvard students that focused on comparing the attractiveness of women by showing side-by-side pictures of them launched in 2003. These photos were taken from the online facebook of nine houses of Harvard. Because of this, Zuckerberg was charged with violation of Copyright laws and privacy. However, these charges were dropped some time after.
But he kept his initial project and began adding study-relevant images and a comments section, creating a social study tool that was shared among students. This landed Zuckerberg an article for The Crimson, a Harvard newspaper, which sparked another idea for him. He decided to create a website that connected people at the university, alongside Eduardo Saverin. Starting with an investment of $1,000 each, they began creating TheFacebook, launched in 2004.
TheFacebook was shared on the Kirkland house mailing list and within 24 hours they got around 1,500 registrations. A month after, TheFacebook reached Stanford, Yale, and Columbia. The newborn platform continued its expansion to most universities from the US and Canada. Later that year, the company moved and by 2005 it dropped the “The” and was known as Facebook.
It’s quite impressive how this company grew so much in less than a year, and what kept coming was only more progress and good news to the company. What started as a social network for university students, evolved by offering high school students the option to sign in. Later on, when Facebook became public, everyone older than 13 years old was able to create a user. Facebook came to be known not only for its social media prowess, but also because it offered apps and games, a marketplace, groups, news, and other extensions like Facebook Lite and Facebook Zero. The company even experimented with a dating app called Facebook Dating. Later on, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Oculus became later acquisitions to the company.
For a long time, Facebook considered rebranding. In 2019 they began by changing the logo and the platform’s user interface, still keeping the name Facebook. Then Meta came through, with the company looking to “reflect its focus on building the metaverse”. With a whopping revenue of US$117.929 billion, Meta is at the top of the most known and important companies these days.
The premise of Meta looks very profitable. The company aims to create the metaverse all together. In a nutshell, this metaverse acts like a virtual reality-oriented social platform. You strap on an Oculus headset and you’re transported to a virtual world where you interact with people just as if you were on Facebook. It focuses on teamwork and finding inspiration with the help of creators, amateurs, and individuals. It’s supposed to feel like a combination of all online experiences from today but expanded into three dimensions and into real life, offering the opportunity to share experiences with others even when not together, which is something that can’t be done in the physical world. Meta is trying to incorporate all types of companies and lifestyles going from social fields to entertainment, gaming, fitness, work, education and commerce.
It sounds good, right? Well, the tech giant has been involved in a long list of controversies as both Facebook and Meta. Some people accuse the company of stealing features from other competitors like Stories from Snapchat and Reels from TikTok. And on the content end of things, Meta has been criticized for allowing or removing different kinds of posts, up to the point of being accused of censorship.
It also had to implement a feature called “Rights Manager” due to the amount of people that plagiarized YouTube videos by posting them on Facebook without giving credit to its rightful owner. For some time, Facebook accepted violent and graphic content on the platform, causing a lot of backlashes and claims that this type of content can cause psychological damage to younger users. There were also pro-anorexia, pro-mafia, rape, child abuse, Neo-nazi, and more controversial groups and posts that were being hosted on the platform. Because of this, the company later made some changes in its policy.
During the beginning of the pandemic, Facebook made a statement saying that no user or company should profit from spreading false information about COVID-19 and vaccines. However, at least 400 Facebook pages with a high number of followers were doing just that. On the other hand, some studies have shown that Facebook (and most social media platforms) can cause addiction and aggravate symptoms of depression.
However, one cannot talk about Meta’s controversies without speaking about its privacy policy. Facebook uses targeted ads that work by reviewing posts that you like and interact with on the platform. Facebook uses certain algorithms to create a profile based on this information. These profiles are sold to advertising companies, allowing them to show you something that you are more likely to buy. On Meta’s privacy policy, they say “We may share your information with third parties, including responsible companies with which we have a relationship.” A lot of criticism has been gathered from this statement which has been changed numerous times. User’s trust in the company is scarred because of these controversies.
So, what should you do if you want to be a part of the metaverse but don’t want any of your personal information being taken away? Well, virtual numbers might be the right solution to your problem. A temporary number allows you to bypass SMS verification by using another number. This way, you can enjoy all the features of the apps you love by keeping your privacy. To get one, you’ll need a reliable provider like us, Major Phones. We offer both US and UK numbers to cover all of your privacy needs.
