Facebook announced plans to hire 10,000 people in the European Union over the next five years to work on a new computer platform that promises to connect people electronically but could raise privacy issues and give Facebook more power over people’s online life.
Those high-skilled people will help construct “the metaverse,” a futuristic concept for connecting online that incorporates augmented and virtual reality, according to a blog post published by the firm on Sunday.
The metaverse has been touted by Facebook executives as the next big thing after mobile internet, despite their track record in predicting future trends. CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s four-year-old predictions of taking virtual holidays with faraway loved ones via a headset or utilizing a smartphone camera to virtually enhance an apartment have yet to materialize.
Antitrust investigations, the testimony of whistleblowing former employees, and worries about how it handles vaccine-related and political misinformation are all on the table for the corporation.
According to a blog post by Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs, and Javier Olivan, vice president of central products, “as we begin the path of bringing the metaverse to life, the need for highly specialized engineers is one of Facebook’s most important needs.”
For the hiring push, Facebook’s recruiters are focusing on Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands, and Ireland.
The metaverse is essentially a vast virtual world that millions of people can enter in real-time via avatars and use to organize virtual meetings, buy virtual land, clothing, and other digital goods, and pay for them with cryptocurrency.
The social network isn’t the only one working on the metaverse, and Facebook has stated that it will not be owned and operated by a single corporation. Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, has received $1 billion from investors to help fund its long-term metaverse aspirations.
However, there are concerns that Facebook and a few other Silicon Valley behemoths will monopolize the metaverse and exploit it to acquire and profit from personal data, similar to how the internet is already used.
Last month, Facebook announced a $50 million investment to support global research and cooperation with human rights organizations, nonprofits, governments, and universities to develop metaverse-friendly products. However, many of those goods will most likely take 10 to 15 years to “completely actualize,” according to the business.
In response to reporters’ inquiry about the company’s inability to detect and remove hateful and excessively violent posts, the company defended its approach to combating hate speech in a separate blog post published on Sunday.
This week and next, two Facebook whistleblowers will testify before a British parliamentary committee working on legislation to tackle online damage. Sophie Zhang, a data scientist who expressed concerns about online political manipulation in countries like Honduras and Azerbaijan before being fired, will testify before the committee on Monday afternoon.
Frances Haugen, who went public with internal Facebook research that she copied before quitting her employment earlier this year, will testify before the committee next week. This month, Haugen appeared before a US Senate committee about her claims that Facebook’s platforms hurt children and instigate political violence, and her visit to the United Kingdom will mark the start of a tour of European legislators and regulators.
