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GreekReporter.comGreek NewsVaroufakis Claims Zuckerberg Stole "Meta" Name for Facebook

Varoufakis Claims Zuckerberg Stole “Meta” Name for Facebook

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Varoufakis accused Mark Zuckerberg of stealing the name “Meta.” Credit: Chatham House/ Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 2.0

Yanis Varoufakis, the former finance minister of Greece, accused Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg of stealing the word “Meta” from a left-wing think-tank.

Posting on Twitter, Varoufakis said: “Hands off our mέta, our Centre for Postcapitalist Civilisation, Mr Zuckerberg. You, and your minions wouldn’t recognise civilisation even if it hit you with a bargepole.”

Varoufakis on advisory board of Meta

The Greek politician, a central figure during the debt crisis of 2015, said that Meta is the acronym for the Centre for Postcapitalist Civilisation, a left wing think-tank whose advisory board includes prominent philosophers, economists, film-makers, artists and activists such as Noam Chomsky, Srećko Horvat Brian Eno, Ken Loach and James K. Galbraith.

Varoufakis is also on the advisory board.

Meta says it “works through art and research, argument and poetry, mέta (the abbreviation of the Centre for Postcapitalist Civilisation) to break with a dystopic present to imagine the world anew. “To grasp our present historical moment so as to help radical progressive movements find a path from the emergent dismal postcapitalism to one worth fighting, and living, for,” it adds.

Facebook rebranding brings backlash in social media

Facebook’s announcement of its new name “Meta” on Thursday has has already brought widespread backlash across social media.

The social media Goliath debuted its new corporate name during the company’s annual Connect Conference. Zuckerberg appeared in a video livestreamed by the company explaining that the new name is meant to be a reflection of the company’s new direction in the metaverse:

“We are a company that builds technology to connect. Together, we can finally put people at the center of our technology. And together, we can unlock a massively bigger creator economy.”

Comedians, politicians, and everyday Twitter users have taken to the platform to criticize the company’s move, taking issue with the name itself while also accusing Facebook of attempting to distract from their recent controversies.

“Meta is such a low effort, first draft name that multiple consulting companies definitely got paid millions of dollars to come up with” tweeted comedian Mike Drucker, to over a thousand likes.

The Daily Show’s host Trevor Noah tweeted a doctored clip created by the show that superimposes footage of the Capitol riots onto the Connect Conference live stream where Zuckerberg steps into an “augmented reality.”

 

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