'Perfect Distraction:' Facebook's Loosely-Defined Metaverse Attempts to Take Eyes Off Its Many Problems

While Facebook has hyped the creation of a digital “metaverse,” it has failed to define exactly what it is or how it will create a viable metaverse product — instead, Mark Zuckerberg uses the buzzword to distract from his platform’s many issues.

In an article titled “The ‘metaverse’ is a perfect distraction for embattled Facebook & Epic Games,” Apple Insider reports that companies like Facebook dealing with numerous scandals have used the concept of a digitally connected “metaverse” to distract from their various issues.

Mark Zuckerberg surrounded by guards ( Chip Somodevilla /Getty)

The metaverse refers to a network of connected 3D worlds that users can enter via virtual or augmented reality. The concept has existed for decades, popularized in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash and brought to even more mainstream attention in movies like Ready Player One.

Now with the wide availability of VR headsets and almost constant internet access, the metaverse concept has the chance to become a reality — but what does that even mean? Online digital communities have existed in the gaming world for decades, with MMORPG games like World of Warcraft and Runescape allowing users to interact with each other in a digital realm for years.

Virtual Reality adds a level of visual realism and immersion to the idea of the metaverse, but how does Facebook’s vision for the metaverse differ from the already popular VRChat video game? Major companies investing in the metaverse have yet to answer these questions.

Apple Insider writes:

There’s a chance that Meta (or Facebook) is sincere in its belief that the metaverse is the future. On the other hand, the timing of the company’s metaverse-focused announcements was awfully convenient.

Think about the news surrounding Facebook in October 2021. The company was mired in a firestorm of controversy because of multiple whistleblowers and a leak of internal documents.

Those sources and leaked documents suggested that Facebook allowed hate speech and disinformation to run rampant on its platforms. They also indicated that the company knew that its platforms were bad for the mental health of teenagers — and that it wasn’t doing anything meaningful about it.

Apple Insider notes that shortly after Facebook’s rebranding to “Meta,” many of its scandals were brushed under the rug to some extent. Consumers and governments began to question the company on the future of metaverse technology rather than the various user data violations and dangers of the platform. Whether this distraction continues to be effective remains to be seen.

Read more at Apple Insider here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address [email protected]