Facebook underwent a total rebranding by Mark Zuckerberg in 2021 in which the social media CEO changed the name of the platform, but the site has faced a bizarre ‘glitch’ and it’s finally been explained.
Now, Facebook really is the original social media giant.
Founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2004, it is considered one of the Big Four media giants alongside Amazon, Apple, and Google.
For a long time, it dominated the internet.
In the early ’00s, pretty much everyone was a Facebook addict, spending hours writing on one another’s walls and “poking” each other.
The founding of the platform has become something of a legend.
The 2010 biographical drama movie, The Social Network, told the story of how the company was founded by Harvard student, Mark Zuckerberg. The movie starred Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Armie Hammer, and Justin Timberlake.
Over the years, Zuckerberg has proven himself to be a shrewd businessman.
And one of the areas in which the Facebook empire has truly excelled is through clever choices of acquisitions.
In April of 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram.
The purchase cost one billion dollars and was one of the most expensive social media spendings to date. But it’s clear that it paid dividends, as Instagram has only grown in popularity since 2012.
And that wasn’t their only smart buy.
In 2014, Facebook acquired the chat platform, WhatsApp, for a whopping nineteen billion dollars. Woah.
In recent years, Zuckerberg made the bold decision to merge Facebook with 2 of the most popular and fastest-growing social media platforms out there.
By adding a suffix to their names.
When loading up the likes of Instagram and WhatsApp, users will now see the suffix “from Facebook” underneath.
Just so we don’t forget who owns them, right?
Some suspect that there’s a specific reason for the change.
They believe that Facebook is hoping to utilize its sister companies, Instagram and Whatsapp, as a means of gaining some cool points.
As result of his dominance in the world of social media…
Zuckerberg’s success has continued to grow and so has his wealth…
As Zuckerberg is now a centibillionaire.
This means his fortune has surpassed 100 billion dollars, The Guardian reports.
He joins the ranks of Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
It’s a truly mind-boggling amount of wealth.
The news of Zuckerberg’s wealth status followed his announcement that he would be launching a rival to TikTok.
The Tik Tok alternative is Instagram Reels.
And despite having a high competition to compete with, Reels have proved to be highly popular.
People can’t get enough of them.
It’s safe to say that Zuckerberg’s social media empire is one of the most successful out there.
But it seems he wants a change from the well-known “Facebook” that everyone knows and loves…
He made the announcement during a Facebook Livestream event…
That the rebranding of the company will also include a name change.
“Starting today, our company is now Meta,” Zuckerberg announced…
Apparently linking in with the company’s plans to build a virtual reality “metaverse” which is currently in development.
Zuckerberg added that their old name “just doesn’t encompass everything we do” anymore.
“Our mission remains the same—it’s still about bringing people together,” he explained. “But now we have a new North Star, to help bring the metaverse to life, and we have a new name that reflects the full breadth of what we do and the future that we want to help build.”
However, the social media platform will still keep the old name Facebook, it’s just the company as a whole that’s rebranding…
“Today we’re seen as a social-media company, but our DNA is building technology to connect people,” said Zuckerberg, “and the metaverse is the next frontier.”
It’s not a coincidence when Facebook gets a glitch…
Because everyone then seems to start posting about it on the platform itself.
So, it all started when users across the globe reported a ‘glitch’ after noticing their news feeds were filled with something bizarre.
And it was to do with celebrities…
“Is anyone else’s Facebook broken or have I been hacked? This is my entire feed,” wrote one user on Twitter.
“Yeah my Facebook page has gone dead weird this morning,” another person agreed.
But what exactly happened?
According to LADbible, rather than updates from pages they follow, many people shared screenshots of their homepage feeds crowded with random messages…
These messages were from fans to the pages of major celebrities.
Including Adam Sandler, Taylor Swift, Snoop Dogg, and Eminem.
Some even suggested the social media platform either had a ‘glitch’ or has been ‘hacked’.
“Is anyone else’s Facebook weird? I can only see things people are putting on celebrity walls?” another added.
Thankfully, a Facebook spokesperson cleared the air and said they were aware of the issue.
“We’re aware that some people are having trouble with their Facebook Feed,” the spokesperson told The Sun.
“We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible and we apologize for any inconvenience,” they added.
And, now, it’s finally been fixed!
And the company has offered an explanation for the problem.
A spokesperson for the platform said that was down to a “configuration change.”
“Earlier today, a configuration change caused some people to have trouble with their Facebook Feed. We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience,” Alexandru Voica, Technology Communications Manager at Meta said.