Mark Zuckerberg has revealed Facebook’s new name, Meta.

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the move in an online conference focused on the metaverse, a virtual 3D world he envisages for the future.

The name change follows a series of negative stories about Facebook, based on documents leaked by an ex-employee.

Mark Zuckerberg explains reason behind Facebook name change

The founder said: “I’ve been thinking a lot about our identity as we begin this new chapter.

“Facebook is one of the most-used products in the history of the world, it is an iconic social media brand.

“But increasingly, it just doesn’t encompass everything that we do, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Quest…Building our social media apps will always be an important focus for us but right now our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can’t possibly represent everything that we are doing today, let alone in the future.”

He added: “To reflect who we are and what we hope to build, I am proud to announce that starting today our company is now Meta, our mission remains the same, it’s still about bringing people together…And now we have a new North Star.

“From now on we’re going to be Meta first and not Facebook first.”