LISBON – Whistle-blower Frances Haugen issued a stinging rebuke of Facebook’s “Meta” rebrand yesterday, accusing the company of yet again prioritising expansion over people’s safety.
The former Facebook engineer, who leaked a trove of internal documents that have sparked weeks of criticism of the social media giant, also called on its chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to step down.
Speaking at the Web Summit tech conference in Lisbon, Haugen said it was “unconscionable” that Facebook was trumpeting its ambitions to develop the “metaverse” – a virtual reality version of the internet – rather than focusing on fixing existing problems.
“Over and over again Facebook chooses expansion in new areas over sticking the landing on what they’ve already done,” she told an audience of tens of thousands in the Portuguese capital.
“Instead of investing in making sure their platforms are at a minimum level of safety, they’re about to invest 10,000 engineers in video games.”
Facebook last month announced that it will hire 10,000 new staff in Europe over the next five years in its bid to build the metaverse, which would use virtual reality to make online experiences – like chatting to a friend, or attending a concert – feel face-to-face.
The company last week announced it was changing the name of Facebook’s parent company to “Meta” to signal the change in focus.
Critics have derided the rebrand as an attempted distraction from the avalanche of damaging revelations from Haugen’s leaked documents.
The “Facebook Papers” show that company executives knew of their sites’ potential for harm on numerous fronts, including the uncontrolled spread of hate speech in developing countries as well as Instagram’s impact on teens’ mental health.
Haugen has accused Facebook of ignoring concerns raised by its own employees in the pursuit of profit. – AFP, November 2, 2021
