KEY POINTS
  • Employees have used the term "brand tax" to refer to the negative impact of Facebook on its other brands.
  • Since a rebranding in November 2019 that tied Facebook's apps together, the association has hurt Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp in terms of gaining trust from younger users.
  • Under the new Meta name, the company has already begun removing the Facebook name from several units.

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With its name change to Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook is trying to eliminate what some employees have called a "brand tax" on apps such as Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the rebranding Thursday, following a brutal seven weeks of document dumps that showed Facebook knew of the harm its products cause and has refused to address them. But the brand tax dates as far back as the 2016 presidential election, when Facebook turned into a haven of hateful content and misinformation.

In this article