Facebook is reportedly planning to rebrand including a change of name to focus on building the metaverse.

The Verge reports the name change could come as early as next week when CEO Mark Zuckerberg will speak at the company’s annual Connect conference on 28th October.

Facebook also owns social media platforms WhatsApp and Instagram, the three companies suffered a global outage earlier this month.

The company said it does not comment on “rumour or speculation”.

It would come at a time when the social media firm is facing deep scrutiny from global lawmakers over the way it moderates content.

What is the metaverse?

Earlier this week it was revealed Facebook is planning to hire 10,000 people to develop a so-called metaverse.

In essence, it is the internet in 3D.

The metaverse is an online world in which people can meet, play and work virtually, often entering this world using virtual reality headsets.

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has described it as being a place where rather than just viewing content “you are in it” and as an early example has used the idea of people watching a concert video on their smartphone but then jumping in it using the metaverse to create the sense they are really there.

Anyone who has seen films such as Ready Player One will have a sense of what this could look like.

The metaverse would not be run by one company, Facebook says, but would instead be an open internet which different companies could build on and offer their own experiences to people.

Some of the virtual experiences already exist in some form, but they are all independent and not seamlessly linked together – that is the aim of the metaverse.

Facebook’s metaverse idea would see all the experience accessible in one place and at any point, with users able to enter it not just via VR headsets, but also PCs, games consoles and mobile devices in much the same way they do now with mobile internet.