In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, after attending a number of sessions with MEPs seeking to set rules for social media companies, Haugen said her former employer was quick to announce Metaverse because “if you don’t like the conversation, try to change the conversation.”
“Facebook has to have a transparency plan for metaverses before we start building all of this stuff, because they can hide behind a wall, they keep making unintended mistakes, and they keep making things that prioritize their profits over safety,” she said.
Metaverse is a kind of interactive internet, or at least it is presented in 3D.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has described Metaverse as a “virtual environment” that you can enter – rather than just looking at it on a screen – and refocus the company’s business model on the world of futuristic virtual reality, including rebranding the company to Meta.
People can meet, work and play using virtual reality headsets, augmented reality glasses, smartphone apps, or other devices.
Haugen is a former Facebook executive turned whistleblower whose testimony about the company’s practices has drawn global attention, and documents she handed to authorities and testified before lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic revealed deep-rooted problems at the company and accelerated legislative and regulatory efforts around the world to rein in Facebook. rein in the big tech companies.
She notes that the social media giant is prioritizing engagement and user growth over online safety.
Haugen, who has also provided a large set of redacted internal documents to a range of news organizations, claims that Facebook’s systems promote online hate and extremism, fail to protect young people from harmful content and the company lacks incentives to fix the problems.
Haugen’s documents revealed an internal crisis in the social media giant, which provides free services to 3 billion people, while Zuckerberg rejected Haugen’s allegations, describing them as a “coordinated campaign” to paint a wrong picture about the company.
Officials in Washington and European capitals take Haugen’s allegations seriously, and European Union lawmakers questioned her on Monday, before applauding her at the end of the two-and-a-half-hour session.
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