Facebook is moving to have the names of it’s two social media platforms of Instagram and WhatApp changed. This comes amid a broad anti-trust inquiry launched by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which is scrutinizing whether Facebook purchased the two platforms to thwart competition in the social media market.
According to the report by Daily Dot, the social media giant, Facebook, will be adding “from Facebook” to both Instagram and WhatsApp so to establish their ownership of the social media platforms. The move will make WhatsApp become “WhatsApp from Facebook” while Instagram will similarly be renamed to “Instagram from Facebook.”
A spokesperson for Facebook confirmed the news with The Information last week. “We want to be clearer about the products and services that are part of Facebook,” they told the outlet.
Other factors appear to have influenced the decision as well. The social media company initially kept its name off of the two apps in order to keep their images from being affected by Facebook’s numerous privacy scandals. Now, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is attempting to paint Facebook as a pro-privacy company, daily Dot reported.
Zuckerberg has also reportedly become frustrated over Facebook not getting the credit for the popularity and growth of Instagram and WhatsApp.
While the two apps were originally allowed to remain largely independent of Facebook, the co-founders of Instagram and WhatsApp quit last year after accusing Zuckerberg of exerting too much control.
When the change is officially made, users will see the “from Facebook” addition in app stores as well as on the apps’ launch screens.
The alteration is also likely meant to bolster Facebook’s image since including it demonstrates to consumers that the company is allegedly responsible for the heightened popularity of both Instagram and WhatsApp. Last year, in an arguably defiant move against Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, Zuckerberg said, “We believe Instagram has been able to use Facebook’s infrastructure to grow more than twice as quickly as it would have on its own.” The co-founders quit in October after accusing the Facebook CEO of taking too much control.