In what seems to be a symbol of its turning a new leaf, social media giant Facebook has now rolled out a colorful new logo. The logo is apparently a nod to how the company will be implementing new changes to its practices following the string of privacy-related probes from both domestic and international regulators.
The signaling of its willingness to change comes as Facebook and other platforms like it are facing escalating antitrust scrutiny. Last month, Facebook faced new litigation from 47 state attorneys general for its anticompetitive practices. The company's CEO also recently appeared before a House committee, which had launched an investigation into its practices.
Facebook rolled out its new logo on Monday, announcing that it was meant to distinguish the corporate parent company from its subsidiaries and its mobile apps. The logo features a simple design with the word "Facebook" in all capital letters and in a new font.
The logo is colored in a hue of blue, green, purple, red, and orange. Each color apparently represents the company's different products. Blue represents the eponymous social media platform, green is for WhatsApp, and Purple, red, and orange is for Instagram.
The move to make its ownership of its apps more transparent highlights the company's desire to properly inform customers which apps it owns and operates. According to recently conducted surveys, about a quarter of users in the United States are aware that WhatsApp and Instagram are owned by Facebook. The rest of the users had assumed that the apps were owned by other companies.
In a blog post published on Monday, Facebook stated that people should be made more aware of which companies own the products they are using. The company hopes that the changes that were made will make it absolutely clear what apps they operate.
Facebook stated that all of its products and marketing materials in the coming weeks should now feature the new logo. This will include the placement of the words "from Facebook" on all of its existing and future mobile applications.
Apart from clarifying its ownership of its apps, Facebook previously stated that it will be working to further protect the privacy of its users by integrating some of its apps' features. Earlier in the year, the company announced that it will soon be integrating the messaging functions of its WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger apps to help it better bolster security. The company plans to fully encrypt communications to and from its apps.
The move will also provide Facebook with a clear advantage as users will soon be able to send the same messages to their contracts from any of its platforms. This will essentially ensure Facebook's dominance in the online messaging space.
