Facebook to hire 10,1000 new workers. Do you want to work with Facebook?
Facebook said it plans to hire 10,000 workers in the European Union over the next five years to work on a new computing platform that promises to connect people virtually but could raise concerns about privacy and the social platform gaining more control in people’s online lives.
The company said in a blog post-Sunday that those high-skilled workers would help build “the metaverse,” a futuristic notion for connecting online that uses augmented and virtual reality.
Facebook to hire: Do you want to join Facebook?
A metaverse is an online world where people can play games, work, and communicate in a virtual environment, often using VR headsets.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been a leading voice on the concept.
The announcement comes as Facebook deals with the fallout of a damaging scandal and faces increased calls for regulation to curb its influence.
Facebook executives have been touting the metaverse as the next big thing after the mobile internet, though their track record is spotty on predicting future trends. For example, CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s expectations four years ago by taking virtual vacations with faraway loved ones via a headset or using a smartphone camera to improve an apartment virtually have not materialized so far.
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The company also is contending with antitrust crackdowns, the testimony of a former whistle-blowing employee, and concerns about how it handles vaccine-related and political misinformation.
“As we begin the journey of bringing the metaverse to life, the need for highly specialized engineers is one of Facebook’s most pressing priorities,” according to the blog post from Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs, and Javier Olivan, vice president of primary products.
Facebook’s recruiters target Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands, and Ireland for the hiring drive.
The social network isn’t the only one working on the metaverse, and Facebook acknowledged that no single company would own and operate it. But there are concerns Facebook and a handful of other Silicon Valley giants would end up monopolizing the metaverse and use it to collect and profit from personal data, mirroring the situation now with the internet.
Facebook last month announced a $50 million investment to fund global research and partnerships with civil rights groups, nonprofits, governments, and universities to develop products responsibly for the metaverse. But the company added that it would probably take 10 to 15 years to “fully realize” many of those products.
In a separate blog post-Sunday, the company defended its approach to combating hate speech in response to a Wall Street Journal article examining its inability to detect and remove hateful and excessively violent posts.
What is the Metaverse?
“The metaverse has the potential to help unlock access to new creative, social, and economic opportunities. And Europeans will be shaping it right from the start,” Facebook said in a blog post.
The new jobs being created over the next five years will include “highly specialized engineers.”
Investing in the EU offered many advantages, including access to a large consumer market, first-class universities, and high-quality talent, Facebook said.
Facebook has made building the metaverse one of its big priorities.
Despite its history of buying up rivals, Facebook claims the metaverse “won’t be built overnight by a single company” and has promised to collaborate.
It recently invested $50m (£36.3m) in nonprofit funding groups to help “build the metaverse responsibly.”
But it thinks the accurate metaverse idea will take another 10 to 15 years.
Some critics say this latest announcement is designed to re-establish the company’s reputation and divert attention after a series of damaging scandals in recent months.
This included revelations from whistleblower Frances Haugen, who worked as a product manager on the civic integrity team at Facebook.
Internal research by Facebook found that Instagram, which it owns, was affecting the mental health of teenagers. But Facebook did not share its findings when they suggested that the platform was a “toxic” place for many youngsters.
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The Bottom Line
In a separate blog post-Sunday, the company defended its approach to combating hate speech in response to a Wall Street Journal article examining its inability to detect and remove hateful and excessively violent posts.
A British parliamentary committee working on legislation to combat online harm is set to hear from two Facebook whistleblowers this week and next.
Sophie Zhang, a data scientist who raised the alarm after finding evidence of online political manipulation in countries like Honduras and Azerbaijan before she was fired, will appear before the committee Monday afternoon.
Next week, the committee will hear from Frances Haugen, who went public with internal Facebook research that she copied before leaving her job earlier this year.
Haugen testified before a US Senate panel this month about her accusations Facebook’s platforms harm children and incited political violence. Her British appearance will be the start of a tour to meet European lawmakers and regulators.
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