I’m the Facebook whistleblower, so you SHOULD be concerned about the Metaverse

A FACEBOOK whistleblower fears children will languish in Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse with little interest in the real world.

Frances Haugen shocked the world last year when she bravely came forward as a leaker, releasing thousands of top-secret documents from her time on the social network.

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The data scientist has accused the tech giant of putting profit before public safety – something Facebook owner Meta has repeatedly denied.

In an exclusive chat with The Sun, Frances has expressed concerns about where Zuckerberg’s big Metaverse plan is headed.

The Metaverse is spearheaded by the tech billionaire as a new virtual world for us to work and socialize in.

Frances from Iowa believes there are serious questions about the project that need to be answered before we proceed.

“Do we want a whole generation of young people to be like, ‘Oh, all my friends just want to be online with me,'” she told The Sun.

“I’m also more concerned about the elderly – instead of investing in community centers or making sure someone comes and sits with that person, we’re basically going to pick up the most marginalized in our society to get into virtual reality.” to live?

“As we went from desktops to phones, people just got more and more hooked because it was a more convenient form factor, it’s more intimate.

“When we move to the metaverse, that’s another step in this chain of escalation.”

The former Facebook product manager also says the origins of the term metaverse should also raise alarms.

First used in a 1992 dystopian science fiction novel, the word was not meant as a desirable concept but as a symptom of a society in decline.

“The reason the metaverse became the metaverse in Snow Crash was because people hated the life they led and hid in the metaverse,” she explained.

Frances was in the UK on Friday to discuss trust in technology at the University of Cambridge’s Minderoo Center for Technology and Democracy.

Speaking to students, she also took aim at Nick Clegg, Zuckerberg’s president of global affairs.

“I think the reason[Zuckerberg]runs away to the metaverse is when he goes to a coffee shop, goes to a restaurant, I think people make faces at him and it must be tough,” Frances said.

“And the part that I find so sad about this whole thing is Nick Clegg…

“He says to Mark, ‘People are just jealous of you. you are so successful

“You’re so rich… They’re so jealous, that’s why they’re so critical.”

When Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s renaming to Meta last October, the 38-year-old Zuckerberg said that Metaverse “isn’t about spending more time on screens.”

“It’s about making the time we’re already spending better.

The Metaverse is not created by a company.

“It’s being built by creators and developers creating new experiences and digital assets that are interoperable, unlocking a massively larger creative economy than that constrained by today’s platforms and their policies.”

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