Facebook Whistleblower Voices Fears Over Metaverse In New Interview

Frances Haugen, the data engineer who gained attention in early October for voicing concerns about Facebook's practices, issued new warnings Tuesday about the "metaverse" in an interview with the Associated Press.

The AP described the metaverse as "the all-encompassing virtual reality world at the heart of the social media giant’s growth strategy." Meta Platforms, Inc. is the new name for the parent organization of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other subsidiaries.

Haugen said she fears that the metaverse will continue to create addictive social media tendencies and rob people of their personal information.

“The metaverse will require us to put many, many more sensors in our homes, in our workplaces, and in the case of the workplaces we don’t get to choose to be in those spaces,” Haugen told the AP.

Haugen thinks Meta “should have to have a transparency plan.”

Testifying before Congress in early October, Haugen warned that the company's practices have resulted in "more division, more harm, more lies, more threats and more combat. In some cases, this dangerous online talk has led to actual violence that harms and even kills people."

Haugen had revealed documents that showed the company knew of the harm it was causing to its users and did nothing to address it.

Haugen said that Meta will give out the hardware for the metaverse for free or very little, and probably will not make any money on it, even incurring initial losses. The reason is due to the company's awareness that people are the products that will make them the most money -- people’s personal lives and their data. Ads are where the company will make money in the metaverse.

Her appearances before Congress and with European lawmakers have inspired a series of rules to address the harm social media causes and provide more protection to users.

The AP noted that Meta has "stressed that it’s working to responsibly build the metaverse."

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and company officials have denied Haugen’s claims. The documents Haugen made public, now called "The Facebook Papers," may still mean that the company has a long way to go to win the trust of potential and current consumers.

Haugen believes that Meta has demonstrated that “it lies whenever it's in its best interest.”