A video showing Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg trying to explain the rationale behind changing the company’s name to ‘Meta’ doesn’t seem to have served its intended purpose. In a new video, Zuckerberg is seen discussing with an employee how “exciting” games are lined up for the Meta Quest. But far from being excited over the announcement, many Twitter users ridiculed the conversation for being “scripted and heavily choreographed.” A clip of the chat posted to Twitter by Washington-based journalist Barry Malone has been viewed over 3.4 million times.

Metaverse is being described as an online world where people could interact in shared virtual spaces. Critics view this as a distraction in the wake of the Facebook’s controversial role in polarising citizens in different countries all over the world, as alleged by Facebook data scientist-turned- whistleblower Frances Haugen. In the recent months, Facebook has also received a lot of flak from Internet activists over users’ privacy concerns and its predatory business model.

In the video, Zuckerberg asks a Facebook employee to take “us through some of the exciting games lined up for Quest”. “Absolutely,” she smiles and replies enthusiastically with hands stretched out.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse: What is the user functionality of the concept?

“I think there must be a hand gesture coach specially hired and paid a fortune to train staff at Facebook,” a Twitter user wrote.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the ‘Meta’ rebranding on Thursday, a move that is being seen in line with his vision for creating a “metaverse”, a virtual reality-based platform that has been described as the future of the Internet. The corporate structure of the social media giant will, however, remain unaffected after the revamp, along with subsidiary platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger. The Facebook Oversight Board said it will continue to be known by its current name.

Some Hebrew speakers also pointed to the irony of Meta translating to “dead” in the language. “The Jewish community will ridicule this name for years to come,” one Twitter user quipped amid a slew of hillarious takes on the rebranding under the hashtag #FacebookDead last week.