New Delhi: In her first public address, Facebook whistleblower Frances Hogen urged her former boss, Mark Zuckerberg, to step down and pave the way for change, rather than allocating resources to a rebrand.
Speaking in the midst of a rebrand of Facebook’s Meta at the opening night of the Web Summit in Lisbon, Haugen said, “I think the company is unlikely to change if (Mark Zuckerberg) remains CEO.”
“Maybe this is a chance for someone else to take the reins… Facebook would be stronger with someone who was willing to focus on security,” said the former Facebook product manager.
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Now Facebook parent company, named Meta, will focus on building “Metaverse,” a shared virtual environment that will be the successor to the mobile Internet.
Expressing views on the rebranding, Haugen said that it doesn’t make sense given the security issues that are yet to be dealt with. “Facebook repeatedly expands and picks new territories, instead of sticking landing on what they’ve already done, which often erupts with applause,” Haugen told an animated crowd.
Skeptics reported that it also appears to be an attempt to change the subject from Facebook Papers, a document trove that has highlighted warnings by Facebook of ignoring internal reports and harming its social networks created or built around the world.
Haugen told British and US lawmakers last month that Facebook would fuel more violent unrest around the world unless it curbs its algorithms that push excessive, divisive content and allow them to scroll. prey on vulnerable demographics.
Zuckerberg called the Metaverse “the next version of the Internet,” adding that the tech giant now wants to be recognized as the Metaverse company.
The metaverse is a multiverse that interoperates more with the real world and incorporates augmented reality overlays.
(with agency input)
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