Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said privacy and security need to be factored in metaverse, as they opened the company’s annual virtual and augmented reality conference on Thursday.
Facebook has been battling criticism over its market power, its content moderation practices, and the pitfalls associated with its social media platform.
In the latest controversy, whistleblower and former Facebook employee Frances Haugen leaked documents in which she said the company chose advantage over user safety. Earlier this week Zuckerberg said that the document used to paint a “false picture”.
Metaverse broadly refers to a shared virtual environment that can be accessed by people using different devices.
Zuckerberg is increasingly promoting the idea of Facebook, which has invested heavily in augmented and virtual reality, as a “metaverse” company rather than social media.
The CEO, speaking during a live-streamed Facebook Connect event, gave examples of privacy and security controls that would be needed in the metaverse, such as the ability to block someone from visiting your location. Zuckerberg is betting that the Metaverse will be the next big computing platform, calling it “the successor to the mobile Internet.”
The whistleblower documents, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, show internal research and employee discussions on the effects of Instagram on teen mental health and whether Facebook fuels division, as well as those surrounding the January 6 Capitol riots. Inconsistencies in handling of activities and moderation of content for users around the world.
The company rolled out several updates to its VR and AR products. It said this year it would launch a way for people using its Oculus VR headset to call friends using Facebook Messenger and invite people to a social version of their home called “Horizon”. Home”, to talk and play the game as an avatar.
Facebook also said it would introduce a way for Oculus Quest users to use various 2D apps like Slack, Dropbox and Facebook, while in this “horizon home” VR space. The company, which began beta testing its virtual meeting space “Horizon Workroom” earlier this year, said it’s working on ways to customize these with the company’s logo and design, and said it’s working on consumer quests. Will bring more work efficiency to the equipment. It also announced new fitness offerings for Oculus Quest users.
Facebook said this week that its hardware division Facebook Reality Labs, which is responsible for AR and VR efforts, would become a separate reporting entity and that its investment in it would reduce this year’s total operating profit by about $10 billion.
This year, Facebook created a product team focused on the Metaverse and recently announced plans to hire 10,000 employees in Europe over the next five years to work on the effort. Facebook also said it would run a $150 million education program aimed at helping AR and VR creators and developers.
.