I worked on meta.org for a year starting in 2017 soon after it was acquired by CZI. There was no sign that I saw that the domain was ever destined for Facebook.
Uninteresting as it may be, I take the reason for the shut down at face value. From what I saw, meta.org never did as well as was expected, and other competitive services were doing better, notably Semantic Scholar.
To be sure, the exact timing probably had something to do with FB’s announcement, and the shared ownership of the two organizations probably helped the domain sale go smoothly.
Uninteresting as it may be, I take the reason for the shut down at face value. From what I saw, meta.org never did as well as was expected, and other competitive services were doing better, notably Semantic Scholar.
To be sure, the exact timing probably had something to do with FB’s announcement, and the shared ownership of the two organizations probably helped the domain sale go smoothly.