Facebook’s Facelift Turns Faceplant

Abstract

More than an attempt to delineate its subsidiaries, the rebrand of Facebook Inc. to Meta Platforms Inc. strategically exploits the communication tactic of rebranding. Concealing and evading corporate social responsibility in this way can be characterized as an act of social, regulatory, and political deception.

​​Actions comparable to such historical cases as Philip Morris Companies and Dow Chemical underscore the long-term, highly strategic work of brand maintenance while this public deception illustrates the paradox of rebranding—making visible the previously invisible—progressing a contested freedom.

Such evasion of responsibility has become acceptable in modern day communication and public relation practices with Facebook leveraging this normalization and complacent social acceptance. The rebrand of the global technology conglomerate ignores critiques and instead utilizes the communication tactic as a conduit for freedom from actively abandoned responsibilities via disownership and a shifting of public attention.

Committed to the future, Meta must be equally indebted to its past and confront its missteps otherwise its cosmetic rebrand will remain superficial—ultimately pressing a double standard agenda—promoting and advancing freedom in the online space while a conflicting internal corporate desire for freedom from responsibility persists. 

A successful facelift or an unexpected faceplant, Facebook‘s rebranding to Meta Platforms Inc. strategically leverages the transitional properties of the communication tactic—seeking liberation from corporate social responsibility.