Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey mocks Facebook's plans to create a 'metaverse'

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    Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has mocked Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to turn Facebook into a ‘metaverse,’ agreeing with a tweet calling it a ‘dystopian corporate dictatorship.’

    Facebook wants the ‘metaverse’ to be a future version of the internet, where users use virtual reality and augmented reality devices to enter virtual worlds. 

    Dorsey retweeted a post from a user called udiverse21, referencing author Neal Stephenson, who first coined the term ‘metaverse’ in 1992.

    The tweet read: ‘the word “metaverse” was coined by neal stephenson in the book “snowcrash” and it originally described a virtual world owned by corporations where end users were treated as citizens in a dystopian corporate dictatorship. What if neal was right.’

    As Dorsey retweeted the post, he added: ‘NARRATOR: He was.’

    The ‘metaverse’ concept is one Facebook appears to be betting its future on, including hiring 10,000 EU staff to develop the shared worlds and technology. 

    Reports also suggest Facebook is planning to change the company name, while keeping the individual brands like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. 

    Facebook has been heavily mocked for this rebranding, with users joking ‘why don’t they call it wokebook,’ and suggesting it is a move by Facebook to distance itself from a series of embarrassing scandals. 

    Zuckerberg (pictured in an Oculus VR headset) thinks Facebook will transition from'primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company' over the next five years

    Zuckerberg (pictured in an Oculus VR headset) thinks Facebook will transition from ‘primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company’ over the next five years

    Dorsey retweeted a post from a user called udiverse21, saying'NARRATOR He was,' referencing author Neal Stephenson, who first coined the term'metaverse' in 1992

    Dorsey retweeted a post from a user called udiverse21, saying ‘NARRATOR He was,’ referencing author Neal Stephenson, who first coined the term ‘metaverse’ in 1992

    Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has mocked Mark Zuckerberg's plan to turn Facebook into a'metaverse,' agreeing with a Tweet calling it a'dystopian corporate dictatorship'

    Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has mocked Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to turn Facebook into a ‘metaverse,’ agreeing with a Tweet calling it a ‘dystopian corporate dictatorship’

    What is the metaverse?

    The ‘metaverse’ is a set of virtual spaces where you can game, work and communicate with other people who aren’t in the same physical space as you. 

    Facebook explained: ‘You’ll be able to hang out with friends, work, play, learn, shop, create and more. 

    ‘It’s not necessarily about spending more time online — it’s about making the time you do spend online more meaningful.’

    While Facebook is leading the charge with the metaverse, it explained that it isn’t a single product one company can build alone. 

    ‘Just like the internet, the metaverse exists whether Facebook is there or not,’ it added. 

    ‘And it won’t be built overnight. Many of these products will only be fully realized in the next 10-15 years.’ 

    The rebrand would see the creation of a parent company, overseeing Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and others, similar to the moves Google took in launching Alphabet to oversee its brands, including YouTube and Nest. 

    The firm’s original, flagship social media site and app – Facebook – is expected to keep its moniker, but Facebook Inc., the parent company will get a new name. 

    Users took to social media to poke fun at the tech giant, which has faced a string of scandals in recent months and has seen its reputation severely bruised.

    One commentator called the plan ‘the old rebrand trick’, in reference to other companies that have changed their names to avoid scrutiny, while others suggested new names for the company, with ‘Fakebook’ and ‘Wokebook’ being popular choices.

    Facebook already has a substantial share of the social media and virtual reality market, through Instagram, WhatsApp and the Oculus VR headsets. 

    Creating a new name for the parent company could shield future products, such as the metaverse, from scandals linked to the brand Facebook. 

    Recently the company has made moves into the corporate market, through Facebook Workplace and a more business orientated version of the its Portal device.  

    In the Zuckerberg-inspired future, someone could put on a virtual reality headset and meet with a friend or colleague who is working in another part of the planet.

    The idea is it would allow people to feel as if they’re face-to-face despite being thousands of miles apart.

    Building this sort of virtual world isn’t a small task, even if it builds on existing technology and brand recognition.

    Insiders say this is why the firm is hiring 10,000 plus staff. 

    The tech giant said the new roles will include ‘highly specialised engineers’ but did not reveal any more detail about its plans for the new metaverse team. 

    Dorsey isn’t the first to criticise Zuckerberg for his vision of a metaverse. 

    Ben Sizer, a software engineer from Nottingham, tweeted earlier this week: ‘Facebook is a company that has roughly 15,000 moderators who are mostly underpaid outsourcers. 

    ‘Yet they announce they will be hiring 10,000 ‘highly specialised’ engineers to create ‘the metaverse’. It’s all about their priorities, not their capabilities.’

    Facebook's Horizon allows users to host boardroom-style get-togethers with cartoon avatars of their colleagues (pictured) and is part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's ambition to turn Facebook into a futuristic'metaverse'

    Facebook’s Horizon allows users to host boardroom-style get-togethers with cartoon avatars of their colleagues (pictured) and is part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s ambition to turn Facebook into a futuristic ‘metaverse’

    User udiverse21 suggested a darker motive, tweeting:'Facebook’s insistence on launching a cryptocurrency + becoming a “metaverse” means one thing. Zuckerberg had enough of running a company. He wants to run a country'

    User udiverse21 suggested a darker motive, tweeting: ‘Facebook’s insistence on launching a cryptocurrency + becoming a ‘metaverse’ means one thing. Zuckerberg had enough of running a company. He wants to run a country’

    Another Twitter user wrote: ‘Facebook seems to find the money and time for their ‘metaverse’ project but when it comes to tackling hate speech and misinformation on their platform, they really couldn’t be bothered.’ 

    Cybersecurity expert Jake Moore told MailOnline: ‘Facebook’s business model is seemingly far from the social media platform it once was with its core function focusing on making money rather than connecting people.’

    He added that there is ‘no doubt the metaverse will make serious amounts of money’, but that the current Facebook platform ‘clearly needs attention’ to tackle the ease with which online abuse and misinformation can spread. 

    In his novel'Snow Crash,' Stephenson described a virtual world owned by corporations, in which'end users were treated as citizens in a dystopian corporate dictatorship,' according to the post by udiverse21 that Dorsey shared

    In his novel ‘Snow Crash,’ Stephenson described a virtual world owned by corporations, in which ‘end users were treated as citizens in a dystopian corporate dictatorship,’ according to the post by udiverse21 that Dorsey shared

    Facebook has announced plans to hire 10,000 people in the European Union to develop a so-called metaverse, a virtual reality version of the internet where people can game, work and communicate. Pictured is the company's virtual reality app Horizon Workrooms

    Facebook has announced plans to hire 10,000 people in the European Union to develop a so-called metaverse, a virtual reality version of the internet where people can game, work and communicate. Pictured is the company’s virtual reality app Horizon Workrooms

    RECENT FACEBOOK SCANDALS 

    US officials announced recently that Facebook had agreed to pay pay up to $14.25 million to settle civil claims by the government that the company discriminated against workers.

    And in the UK, the company was fined £50.5 million ($70 million) after failing to provide enough important information to the competition regulator investigating the firm’s takeover of GIF sharing platform Giphy.

    Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched a probe into the acquisition in June last year, shortly after the deal was announced, over concerns about a ‘substantial lessening of competition’.

    Facebook has also admitted  users can share information about how to enter countries illegally and about people smuggled on social media platforms.

    The admission comes as Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich urged the Department of Justice to investigate the firm over its ‘facilitation’ of illegal migration.

    It was accused of facilitating the spread of misinformation during the 2016 US presidential election, prompting a a series of congressional hearings and policy changes. 

    In 2019, the Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook $5 billion for allowing 87 million US profiles to be harvested for information used for political advertising by Cambridge Analytica.

    Some of the advertising was used to help the 2016 campaign of former president Donald Trump.

    Most recently, former Facebook employee Frances Haugen released a trove of documents dubbed the ‘Facebook Files’.

    The internal research suggests that Facebook promoted divisiveness as a way to keep people on the site, with Haugen saying the documents showed the company had failed to protect young users.

    It also showed that the company knew Instagram harmed young girls’ body image and even tried to brainstorm ways to appeal to toddlers by ‘exploring playdates as a growth lever.’

    In July, Facebook said it was creating a product team to work on the metaverse, which would be part of its AR and VR group Facebook Reality Labs.

    Zuckerberg has predicted that Facebook will transition from ‘primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company’ over the next five years.

    It bought Oculus, a company that makes virtual reality headsets, for $2 billion in 2014 and has since been developing Horizon, a digital world where people can interact using VR technology.

    The move towards a metaverse could be eased without the name Facebook attached, as the firm has attracted an increasing number of scandals.

    US officials announced recently that Facebook Inc had agreed to pay pay up to $14.25 million to settle civil claims by the government that the company discriminated against American workers and violated federal recruitment rules. 

    And in the UK, the company was fined £50.5 million ($70 million) after failing to provide enough important information to the competition regulator investigating the firm’s takeover of GIF sharing platform Giphy.

    Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched a probe into the acquisition in June last year, shortly after the deal was announced, over concerns about a ‘substantial lessening of competition’.

    Facebook has also admitted that users can share information about how to enter countries illegally and about people smuggled on its social media platforms.

    The admission comes as Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich urged the Department of Justice and US Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate the social media giant over its ‘facilitation’ of illegal migration into the United States. 

    It was accused of facilitating the spread of misinformation during the 2016 US presidential election, prompting a a series of congressional hearings and policy changes, including the introduction of third-party fact-checkers and further transparency in political advertising.

    In 2019, the Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook $5 billion for allowing 87 million US profiles to be harvested for information used for political advertising by British firm Cambridge Analytica.

    Some of the advertising was used to help the 2016 campaign of former president Donald Trump.

    Most recently, former Facebook employee Frances Haugen released a trove of documents dubbed the ‘Facebook Files’ to the Wall Street Journal. 

    The firm's original, flagship social media site and app - Facebook  (pictured, stock image) - is expected to keep its moniker, but Facebook Inc., the parent company which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, will be given rebrand

    The firm’s original, flagship social media site and app – Facebook  (pictured, stock image) – is expected to keep its moniker, but Facebook Inc., the parent company which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, will be given rebrand

    The internal research suggests that Facebook promoted divisiveness as a way to keep people on the site, with Haugen saying the documents showed the company had failed to protect young users.

    It also showed that the company knew Instagram harmed young girls’ body image and even tried to brainstorm ways to appeal to toddlers by ‘exploring playdates as a growth lever.’

    ‘The company’s leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer, but won’t make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people. Congressional action is needed,’ Haugen said at a hearing.  

    Haugen told senators that no similar company’s CEO has as much unilateral control as Zuckerberg does.

    Haugen said the Menlo Park, California-based company'over and over again has shown it chooses profits over safety'. Pictured: Facebook's headquarters in California

    Haugen said the Menlo Park, California-based company ‘over and over again has shown it chooses profits over safety’. Pictured: Facebook’s headquarters in California

    ‘Mark holds a very unique role in the tech industry in that he holds over 55% of all the voting shares for Facebook. 

    ‘There are no similarly powerful companies that are as unilaterally controlled,’ she said. ‘There’s no one currently holding him accountable but himself.’  

    This lack of accountability could set the firm back when it comes to regulatory oversight, and government intervention in moves to create a metaverse.

    However, Facebook isn’t the only firm getting into, or even already in this sector. 

    The popular children’s game Roblox describes itself as a metaverse company. Epic Games’ Fortnite is also considered to be part of the metaverse.

    The metaverse is ‘going to be a big focus, and I think that this is just going to be a big part of the next chapter for the way that the internet evolves after the mobile internet,’ Zuckerberg told The Verge earlier this year. 

    ‘And I think it’s going to be the next big chapter for our company too, really doubling down in this area.’ 

    WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AR AND VR? 

    Virtual reality is a computer-generated simulation of an environment or situation.

    It immerses the user by making them feel like they are in the simulated reality through images and sounds.

    For example, in VR, you could feel like you’re climbing a mountain while you’re at home.

    In contrast, augmented reality layers computer-generated images on top of an existing reality.

    AR is developed into apps to bring digital components into the real world.

    For example, in the Pokemon Go app, the characters seem to appear in real world scenarios.

     

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