Meta, more colloquially known as Facebook is looking for avenues to generate new user numbers. In a related attempt, the social media platform is testing a feature that will allow individuals to create multiple profiles from a single account.

Up until now, Facebook only allowed a user to create a single account. However, business accounts and public personalities were given the leeway to make multiple accounts.

If the tests are successful, Facebook is expected to allow users to create up to five additional accounts, with switching between them requiring only two taps.

The other accounts can be used to show the alter-egos of the users. These user profiles can be dedicated to myriad hobbies such as cooking, dancing, singing or simply talking to a close family or friends group.&nbsp;

This way, Facebook is attempting to ward off competition from new-age rival platforms such as TikTok. The short-video platform has been a thorn in Facebook's flesh for a long time.&nbsp;

Facebook has been losing users

Facebook trying to reinvent the wheel can also be attributed to the dismal numbers it has been mustering in recent times. Earlier this year in February,&nbsp;Meta’s fourth-quarter earnings showed daily users declining for the first time ever.

Meanwhile, the company’s profit declined by eight per cent to $10.28 billion in the December 2021 quarter, from $11.21 billion in the same period a year ago.

Read More:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/business-economy/meta-shares-sink-22-as-facebook-loses-one-million-daily-users-450000">Meta shares sink 22% as Facebook loses one million daily users</a>

 
With a userbase that has been dwindling, the Mark Zuckerberg-owned platform has been looking up to its Metaverse as the next cash cow. Both Mark and Meta have kept all their eggs in Metaverse which is a combination of Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR).

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Meta, more colloquially known as Facebook is looking for avenues to generate new user numbers. In a related attempt, the social media platform is testing a feature that will allow individuals to create multiple profiles from a single account.

Meta, more colloquially known as Facebook is looking for avenues to generate new user numbers. In a related attempt, the social media platform is testing a feature that will allow individuals to create multiple profiles from a single account. Up until now, Facebook only allowed a user to create a single account. However, business accounts and public personalities were given the leeway to make multiple accounts. If the tests are successful, Facebook is expected to allow users to create up to five additional accounts, with switching between them requiring only two taps. The other accounts can be used to show the alter-egos of the users. These user profiles can be dedicated to myriad hobbies such as cooking, dancing, singing or simply talking to a close family or friends group. This way, Facebook is attempting to ward off competition from new-age rival platforms such as TikTok. The short-video platform has been a thorn in Facebook's flesh for a long time. Facebook has been losing users Facebook trying to reinvent the wheel can also be attributed to the dismal numbers it has been mustering in recent times. Earlier this year in February, Meta’s fourth-quarter earnings showed daily users declining for the first time ever. Meanwhile, the company’s profit declined by eight per cent to $10.28 billion in the December 2021 quarter, from $11.21 billion in the same period a year ago. Read More: Meta shares sink 22% as Facebook loses one million daily users With a userbase that has been dwindling, the Mark Zuckerberg-owned platform has been looking up to its Metaverse as the next cash cow. Both Mark and Meta have kept all their eggs in Metaverse which is a combination of Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR).

Facebook to allow upto five accounts on a single profile; Zuckerberg attempts to drum up user numbers

Billionaires including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bernard Arnault, and Changpeng Zhao have lost billions in the first half of 2022.

The dizzying decline that marks the steepest six-month drop ever for the global billionaire class adversely affected the world’s 500 richest people.

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, governments and central banks unleashed unprecedented stimulus measures but the present erosion of wealth is a sharp departure from the previous two years.

Although billionaires made a fortune during the pandemic, they are now losing altitude fast with policymakers now raising interest rates to combat elevated inflation.

With policymakers now raising interest rates to combat elevated inflation, Tesla Inc. had its worst quarter ever in the three months through June.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk is the wealthiest man on the planet with a net worth of $208.5 billion followed by Amazon’s Bezos with a $129.6 billion net worth and Bernard Arnault with a $128.7 billion fortune.

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Thorne Perkin, president of Papamarkou Wellner Asset Management, told Bloomberg that the billionaire class has amassed so much wealth in recent years that they can withstand the worst first half since 1970 for the S&amp;P 500 Index.

“Often their mindset is a bit more contrarian. A lot of our clients look for opportunities when there’s trouble in the streets,”&nbsp;Perkin said.&nbsp;

Global stock markets have plunged after Russia's invasion of Ukraine but amid the fallout Moscow's wealthiest man Vladimir Potanin with a $35.2 billion fortune, acquired Societe Generale SA’s entire position in Rosbank PJSC.

After the app-based brokerage’s share price tumbled 77 per cent from its hotly anticipated initial public offering last July, Sam Bankman-Fried, chief executive officer of crypto exchange FTX, bought a 7.6 per cent stake in Robinhood Markets Inc.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Billionaires including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bernard Arnault, and Changpeng Zhao have lost billions in the first half of 2022. The dizzying decline that marks the steepest six-month drop ever for the global billionaire class adversely affected the world’s 500 richest people.

Billionaires including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bernard Arnault, and Changpeng Zhao have lost billions in the first half of 2022. The dizzying decline that marks the steepest six-month drop ever for the global billionaire class adversely affected the world’s 500 richest people. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, governments and central banks unleashed unprecedented stimulus measures but the present erosion of wealth is a sharp departure from the previous two years. Although billionaires made a fortune during the pandemic, they are now losing altitude fast with policymakers now raising interest rates to combat elevated inflation. With policymakers now raising interest rates to combat elevated inflation, Tesla Inc. had its worst quarter ever in the three months through June. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk is the wealthiest man on the planet with a net worth of $208.5 billion followed by Amazon’s Bezos with a $129.6 billion net worth and Bernard Arnault with a $128.7 billion fortune. × Thorne Perkin, president of Papamarkou Wellner Asset Management, told Bloomberg that the billionaire class has amassed so much wealth in recent years that they can withstand the worst first half since 1970 for the S&P 500 Index. “Often their mindset is a bit more contrarian. A lot of our clients look for opportunities when there’s trouble in the streets,” Perkin said. Global stock markets have plunged after Russia's invasion of Ukraine but amid the fallout Moscow's wealthiest man Vladimir Potanin with a $35.2 billion fortune, acquired Societe Generale SA’s entire position in Rosbank PJSC. After the app-based brokerage’s share price tumbled 77 per cent from its hotly anticipated initial public offering last July, Sam Bankman-Fried, chief executive officer of crypto exchange FTX, bought a 7.6 per cent stake in Robinhood Markets Inc. (With inputs from agencies) Watch WION's live TV here:

Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg among billionaires who lost $1.4 trillion in first half of 2022

Facebook-owner Meta Platforms Inc has cut plans to hire engineers by at least 30 per cent this year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced, as he warned to brace for a deep economic downturn.

Facebook parent Meta slashes hiring plans for new engineers by 30 per cent

Meta Platforms, which is Facebook's parent company, is launching an avatar fashion store where users can purchase virtual designer clothes for real money.

According to Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, the outfits will be designed by fashion brands Balenciaga, Prada, and Thom Browne.

Speaking in a live video stream with Instagram's head of fashion, he said “Digital goods will be an important way to express yourself in the metaverse and a big driver of the creative economy.”

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The outfits, which can be bought in a price range between $2.99 and $8.99, cost much less than the real outfits by those designers.

Joking about his own avatar, which was previewed wearing a cropped T-shirt, low-rise jeans, and a white belt, Zuckerberg said “I don’t know that I ever could have pulled that off.”

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/parents-of-teenager-sue-meta-after-alleging-that-she-suffered-eating-disorder-because-of-instagram-addiction-486881">Also read |&nbsp;Parents of teenager sue Meta after alleging that she suffered eating disorder because of Instagram addiction</a>

In a statement, Meta said that the digital outfits will be available only on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger.

It comes after Fortnite introduced Balenciaga skins so players could purchase garments like a branded hoodie while players can visit Gucci Town in Roblox.

Last year, Meta redesigned its virtual reality avatars to be more expressive and three-dimensional following which they were made available on all platforms under Meta in January. 
&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

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Meta Platforms, which is Facebook's parent company, is launching an avatar fashion store where users can purchase virtual designer clothes for real money. According to Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, the outfits will be designed by fashion brands Balenciaga, Prada, and Thom Browne.

Meta Platforms, which is Facebook's parent company, is launching an avatar fashion store where users can purchase virtual designer clothes for real money. According to Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, the outfits will be designed by fashion brands Balenciaga, Prada, and Thom Browne. Speaking in a live video stream with Instagram's head of fashion, he said “Digital goods will be an important way to express yourself in the metaverse and a big driver of the creative economy.” × The outfits, which can be bought in a price range between $2.99 and $8.99, cost much less than the real outfits by those designers. Joking about his own avatar, which was previewed wearing a cropped T-shirt, low-rise jeans, and a white belt, Zuckerberg said “I don’t know that I ever could have pulled that off.” Also read | Parents of teenager sue Meta after alleging that she suffered eating disorder because of Instagram addiction In a statement, Meta said that the digital outfits will be available only on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. It comes after Fortnite introduced Balenciaga skins so players could purchase garments like a branded hoodie while players can visit Gucci Town in Roblox. Last year, Meta redesigned its virtual reality avatars to be more expressive and three-dimensional following which they were made available on all platforms under Meta in January. (With inputs from agencies) Watch WION's live TV here:

Designer virtual clothes for real money? Meta is launching avatar fashion store

Meta announced on Tuesday that Whatsapp is beta testing a new feature that would allow Android users to transfer Whatsapp chat history to iOS. Earlier you could either move to the same type of phone, such as Android to Android or move to a different type of phone, such as iPhone to Android.

Making the announcement, Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the ‘ability to securely switch between phones’ is now being added to WhatsApp.

If you’re moving to a different type of phone you can keep your account information including your profile photo, about, individual chats, group chats, and settings.

To transfer chat history, after you have selected the "Move data from Android" option, your new iPhone will look for the Move to iOS app on your older device and create a peer-to-peer connection.&nbsp;

Here, you will be able to choose the apps, files, contacts and more to bring over to your iPhone, and starting today the option for WhatsApp will join that list.

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/in-pics-ukraine-bids-farewell-to-its-war-heroes-488400">In pics: Ukraine bids farewell to its war heroes</a>

The time taken for the transfer will depend on the amount of content you have.&nbsp;

Users can only transfer data from devices with Android version 5.0 and above to iPhones with iOS 15.5 or above. WhatsApp must be updated to the latest version on the Android device and both phones must be connected to a power source and connected on the same WiFi network.

Whatsapp introduced the feature to transfer chat backup from iOS to Android last year.

(with inputs from agencies)

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Meta announced on Tuesday that Whatsapp is beta testing a new feature that would allow Android users to transfer Whatsapp chat history to iOS. Earlier you could either move to the same type of phone, such as Android to Android or move to a different type of phone, such as iPhone to Android.

Meta announced on Tuesday that Whatsapp is beta testing a new feature that would allow Android users to transfer Whatsapp chat history to iOS. Earlier you could either move to the same type of phone, such as Android to Android or move to a different type of phone, such as iPhone to Android. Making the announcement, Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the ‘ability to securely switch between phones’ is now being added to WhatsApp. If you’re moving to a different type of phone you can keep your account information including your profile photo, about, individual chats, group chats, and settings. To transfer chat history, after you have selected the "Move data from Android" option, your new iPhone will look for the Move to iOS app on your older device and create a peer-to-peer connection. Here, you will be able to choose the apps, files, contacts and more to bring over to your iPhone, and starting today the option for WhatsApp will join that list. Also Read: In pics: Ukraine bids farewell to its war heroes The time taken for the transfer will depend on the amount of content you have. Users can only transfer data from devices with Android version 5.0 and above to iPhones with iOS 15.5 or above. WhatsApp must be updated to the latest version on the Android device and both phones must be connected to a power source and connected on the same WiFi network. Whatsapp introduced the feature to transfer chat backup from iOS to Android last year. (with inputs from agencies) WATCH WION LIVE HERE You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.

Meta announces Whatsapp chat transfer from Android to iOS possible now

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook owner of Meta Platforms Inc's Chief Operating Officer is leaving the company after 14 years. Announcing the move on Facebook, Sandberg wrote "When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life."

Taking over for her is the current Chief Growth Officer Javier Olivan.

Who is Olivan?

Javier Olivan has worked at Meta for over 14 years and has led teams handling the company's many projects, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.

As per a Reuters report, he has played a crucial, albeit behind the scenes role in Meta's growth over the last 15 years.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/meta-coo-sheryl-sandberg-to-step-down-after-14-year-stint-484276" hreflang="en">Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg to step down after 14-year stint</a>

Background:

Before joining Facebook in late 2007, Olivan worked at Japan's NTT and Siemens.

He grew up in the Pyrenees region of Spain and holds a degree in Electrical and Industrial engineering from the University of Navarra. He also has a Stanford master's degree in business administration.

Journey at Facebook:

Back when Olivan joined Facebook, the then young company had only about 40 million users. Today this number has reached nearly 3.6 billion (including Facebook, Instagram and other apps).

As per a 2010 interview with VentureBeat, Javier was instrumental in Facebook's expansion into countries like India, Japan, Russia, Indonesia and Brazil.

Watch |&nbsp;Sheryl Sandberg steps down as Meta COO after 14 years

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Current position:

Currently, he's the Chief Growth Officer of Meta, and as part of this job, he managed features and functions that span Facebook and its other applications like Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.

New role:

As per a post by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in his new role as the COO (Chief Operating Officer), Olivan will continue to lead infrastructure and development. Additionally, he would also look after advertising and business products.

However, he will continue to stay out of the limelight.

"This role will be different from what Sheryl has done. It will be a more traditional COO role where Javi will be focused internally and operationally, building on his strong track record of making our execution more efficient and rigorous," Zuckerberg said.

Olivan may have less autonomy now that Meta is a mature firm with $118 billion in revenue than Sandberg did when she arrived in the company's early years, says&nbsp;to Brian Wieser, global head of business intelligence at ad agency GroupM.

(With inputs from agencies)

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook owner of Meta Platforms Inc's Chief Operating Officer is leaving the company after 14 years. Announcing the move on Facebook, Sandberg wrote "When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook owner of Meta Platforms Inc's Chief Operating Officer is leaving the company after 14 years. Announcing the move on Facebook, Sandberg wrote "When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life." Taking over for her is the current Chief Growth Officer Javier Olivan. Who is Olivan? Javier Olivan has worked at Meta for over 14 years and has led teams handling the company's many projects, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. As per a Reuters report, he has played a crucial, albeit behind the scenes role in Meta's growth over the last 15 years. Also read | Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg to step down after 14-year stint Background: Before joining Facebook in late 2007, Olivan worked at Japan's NTT and Siemens. He grew up in the Pyrenees region of Spain and holds a degree in Electrical and Industrial engineering from the University of Navarra. He also has a Stanford master's degree in business administration. Journey at Facebook: Back when Olivan joined Facebook, the then young company had only about 40 million users. Today this number has reached nearly 3.6 billion (including Facebook, Instagram and other apps). As per a 2010 interview with VentureBeat, Javier was instrumental in Facebook's expansion into countries like India, Japan, Russia, Indonesia and Brazil. Watch | Sheryl Sandberg steps down as Meta COO after 14 years Current position: Currently, he's the Chief Growth Officer of Meta, and as part of this job, he managed features and functions that span Facebook and its other applications like Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. New role: As per a post by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in his new role as the COO (Chief Operating Officer), Olivan will continue to lead infrastructure and development. Additionally, he would also look after advertising and business products. However, he will continue to stay out of the limelight. "This role will be different from what Sheryl has done. It will be a more traditional COO role where Javi will be focused internally and operationally, building on his strong track record of making our execution more efficient and rigorous," Zuckerberg said. Olivan may have less autonomy now that Meta is a mature firm with $118 billion in revenue than Sandberg did when she arrived in the company's early years, says to Brian Wieser, global head of business intelligence at ad agency GroupM. (With inputs from agencies)

Who is Javier Olivan, Meta's new Chief Operating Officer?

Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg held a virtual meeting for over 70,000 employees of Meta Platforms Inc after Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg announced she is leaving the company after 14 years.

''I think it’s hard for us to have, sitting where we are today, where we have this really successful company, to put ourselves in what things were like from when Sheryl joined in order to understand just how big of an impact she’s had on this place,'' he said during the meeting. as per a leaked transcript.

Reminiscing about the time he met Sandberg, Zuckerberg recalled he was a 23-years-old man who had no idea about what he was doing.

According to Zuckerberg, ''A lot of what Sheryl did is she architected our ads business, she hired a lot of great people, she built our management culture, and taught me and so many other people here how to run a company.''

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''I think a lot of her legacy is that she just created opportunities for millions of people around the world and I think she deserves a lot of the credit for what Meta is today,'' Zuckerberg said glossing over any questions about his relationship with Sandberg.

''I think it’s been really unusual for a partnership like this to last so long, Sheryl will say that she thought it would last for five years but it lasted for 14. I was a little more optimistic that it would have lasted a little more than five years,'' he added.

Explaining why his partnership with Sandberg lasted so long, Zuckerberg said ''Sheryl is just such an amazing person and leader and partner and friend and like so much of what she did, she really focused on making the partnership work and she focuses on nurturing the relationships and helping the people around her grow.''

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/who-is-javier-olivan-metas-new-chief-operating-officer-484547">Also read |&nbsp;Who is Javier Olivan, Meta's new Chief Operating Officer?</a>

Expressing his gratitude towards Sandberg, Zuckerberg said ''I’m just super grateful for having had this opportunity to build this company and work so closely with Sheryl, and I feel like she’s leaving us in a great place having trained so many other awesome and talented people here.''

''She’s not going that far because she’s gonna be on our board going forward. So anyway, it’s difficult to overstate how big of an impact Sheryl’s had on this place, he added.

Sandberg’s departure comes at a time when Meta is shifting focus toward hardware products and the "metaverse".

Mired in controversies, the world's biggest social network is facing unparalleled uncertainty about its future amid the ongoing threat of regulatory scrutiny.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg held a virtual meeting for over 70,000 employees of Meta Platforms Inc after Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg announced she is leaving the company after 14 years.

Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg held a virtual meeting for over 70,000 employees of Meta Platforms Inc after Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg announced she is leaving the company after 14 years. ''I think it’s hard for us to have, sitting where we are today, where we have this really successful company, to put ourselves in what things were like from when Sheryl joined in order to understand just how big of an impact she’s had on this place,'' he said during the meeting. as per a leaked transcript. Reminiscing about the time he met Sandberg, Zuckerberg recalled he was a 23-years-old man who had no idea about what he was doing. According to Zuckerberg, ''A lot of what Sheryl did is she architected our ads business, she hired a lot of great people, she built our management culture, and taught me and so many other people here how to run a company.'' ''I think a lot of her legacy is that she just created opportunities for millions of people around the world and I think she deserves a lot of the credit for what Meta is today,'' Zuckerberg said glossing over any questions about his relationship with Sandberg. ''I think it’s been really unusual for a partnership like this to last so long, Sheryl will say that she thought it would last for five years but it lasted for 14. I was a little more optimistic that it would have lasted a little more than five years,'' he added. Explaining why his partnership with Sandberg lasted so long, Zuckerberg said ''Sheryl is just such an amazing person and leader and partner and friend and like so much of what she did, she really focused on making the partnership work and she focuses on nurturing the relationships and helping the people around her grow.'' Also read | Who is Javier Olivan, Meta's new Chief Operating Officer? Expressing his gratitude towards Sandberg, Zuckerberg said ''I’m just super grateful for having had this opportunity to build this company and work so closely with Sheryl, and I feel like she’s leaving us in a great place having trained so many other awesome and talented people here.'' ''She’s not going that far because she’s gonna be on our board going forward. So anyway, it’s difficult to overstate how big of an impact Sheryl’s had on this place, he added. Sandberg’s departure comes at a time when Meta is shifting focus toward hardware products and the "metaverse". Mired in controversies, the world's biggest social network is facing unparalleled uncertainty about its future amid the ongoing threat of regulatory scrutiny. (With inputs from agencies) Watch WION's live TV here:

'End of an era': Leaked transcript reveals what Zuckerberg told Meta employees about Sandberg’s exit

Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Meta is stepping down from her post after a 14-year stint. She made her decision public in a Facebook post on Wednesday (June 1).

Sheryl Sandberg steps down as Meta COO after 14 years

Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Meta is stepping down from her post after a 14-year stint. Sandberg's close partnershio with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has powered growth of Facebook, world's biggest social network. She made her decision public in a Facebook post on Wednesday (June 1).

The announcement made Facebook shares plummet by 4 per cent. &nbsp;Sandberg is one of the most visible executives at Meta and has long been a staunch defender of the company’s often-criticized business model and its founder, Zuckerberg

"When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life," she wrote.

Meta's Chief Growth Officer Javier Oliva will take over as next chief operating officer. He has worked at Meta for 14 years and has handled teams within Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger

Sandberg said she was not sure what the future holds for her, but that she plans to focus on her foundation and philanthropic work. She will continue to serve on Meta's board after leaving the company in the fall, she said.

Prior to joining Facebook, Sandberg was vice president of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google, chief of staff for the United States Treasury Department under former President Bill Clinton, a management consultant with McKinsey &amp; Company, and an economist with the World Bank.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Meta is stepping down from her post after a 14-year stint. Sandberg's close partnershio with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has powered growth of Facebook, world's biggest social network.

Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Meta is stepping down from her post after a 14-year stint. Sandberg's close partnershio with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has powered growth of Facebook, world's biggest social network. She made her decision public in a Facebook post on Wednesday (June 1). The announcement made Facebook shares plummet by 4 per cent. Sandberg is one of the most visible executives at Meta and has long been a staunch defender of the company’s often-criticized business model and its founder, Zuckerberg "When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life," she wrote. Meta's Chief Growth Officer Javier Oliva will take over as next chief operating officer. He has worked at Meta for 14 years and has handled teams within Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger Sandberg said she was not sure what the future holds for her, but that she plans to focus on her foundation and philanthropic work. She will continue to serve on Meta's board after leaving the company in the fall, she said. Prior to joining Facebook, Sandberg was vice president of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google, chief of staff for the United States Treasury Department under former President Bill Clinton, a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, and an economist with the World Bank. (With inputs from agencies) You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here. WATCH WION LIVE HERE ×

Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg to step down after 14-year stint

Metaverse was launched with much fanfare and optimism by Mark Zuckerberg for connecting people online that encompasses augmented and virtual reality.

However, as is the case with social media platforms where bullying and cybercrime are rampant, Metaverse, too, has its own share of vices.

According to an online watchdog, within an hour of entering the Metaverse, a 21-year-old woman was sexually assaulted and harassed virtually.

A report — titled “Metaverse: another cesspool of toxic content” — said that the woman was raped within one hour of being in the metaverse, according to a new report from SumOfUs, a “nonprofit advocacy organization and online community that campaigns to hold corporations accountable” for a variety of alleged infractions, reports Daily Mail.

The unnamed woman, who works as a researcher for SumOfUs‚ claimed that her avatar was raped while other users watched after he led her into a private room at a party on “Horizon Worlds,”—a metaverse platform released by Meta last December in the US and Canada that allows users to gather with others, play games and build their own virtual worlds.

Even though everything is happening virtually, the woman could sense the unwanted touch and grope through the VR controllers.

In the Metaverse, when a user is touched by another, the hand controllers vibrate, “creating a very disorienting and even disturbing physical experience during a virtual assault.”

“It happened so fast I kind of disassociated. One part of my brain was like ‘WTF is happening,’ the other part was like ‘this isn’t a real body,’ and another part was like, ‘this is important research,’” the unnamed researcher said in the report.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/what-is-metaverse-the-new-buzzword-in-internet-technology-412364">What is metaverse, the new buzzword in internet technology?</a>

The watchdog also pointed out that “VR users have long reported problems with sexual harassment, verbal abuse, racial slurs and invasion of personal space on a myriad of apps.”

Also read |&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/metaverse-electric-cars-brain-tech-take-a-look-at-how-the-future-of-technology-will-look-like-443374">Metaverse, electric cars, brain tech: Take a look at how the future of technology will look like</a>

Responding to the incident, a representative for Meta told the Daily Mail, “We don’t recommend turning off the safety feature with people you do not know.”

The SumOfUs report also listed other cases of sexual harassment that have occurred in the metaverse.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Metaverse was launched with much fanfare and optimism by Mark Zuckerberg for connecting people online that encompasses augmented and virtual reality. However, as is the case with social media platforms where bullying and cybercrime are rampant, Metaverse, too, has its own share of vices.

Metaverse was launched with much fanfare and optimism by Mark Zuckerberg for connecting people online that encompasses augmented and virtual reality. However, as is the case with social media platforms where bullying and cybercrime are rampant, Metaverse, too, has its own share of vices. According to an online watchdog, within an hour of entering the Metaverse, a 21-year-old woman was sexually assaulted and harassed virtually. A report — titled “Metaverse: another cesspool of toxic content” — said that the woman was raped within one hour of being in the metaverse, according to a new report from SumOfUs, a “nonprofit advocacy organization and online community that campaigns to hold corporations accountable” for a variety of alleged infractions, reports Daily Mail. The unnamed woman, who works as a researcher for SumOfUs‚ claimed that her avatar was raped while other users watched after he led her into a private room at a party on “Horizon Worlds,”—a metaverse platform released by Meta last December in the US and Canada that allows users to gather with others, play games and build their own virtual worlds. Even though everything is happening virtually, the woman could sense the unwanted touch and grope through the VR controllers. In the Metaverse, when a user is touched by another, the hand controllers vibrate, “creating a very disorienting and even disturbing physical experience during a virtual assault.” “It happened so fast I kind of disassociated. One part of my brain was like ‘WTF is happening,’ the other part was like ‘this isn’t a real body,’ and another part was like, ‘this is important research,’” the unnamed researcher said in the report. Also read | What is metaverse, the new buzzword in internet technology? The watchdog also pointed out that “VR users have long reported problems with sexual harassment, verbal abuse, racial slurs and invasion of personal space on a myriad of apps.” Also read | Metaverse, electric cars, brain tech: Take a look at how the future of technology will look like Responding to the incident, a representative for Meta told the Daily Mail, “We don’t recommend turning off the safety feature with people you do not know.” The SumOfUs report also listed other cases of sexual harassment that have occurred in the metaverse. (With inputs from agencies) WATCH WION LIVE HERE You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.

21-year-old woman virtually raped, harassed in metaverse: Report

Attorney General Karl Racine of the District of Columbia has filed a lawsuit against Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in connection with the Facebook Cambridge Analytica incident. According to the lawsuit, Zuckerberg was "personally accountable" for creating the loose privacy regulations that allowed the consulting business to gather user data without consent, then failing to notify users and ensure that the data was removed. It comes after an unsuccessful attempt to name Zuckerberg in a similar complaint against Facebook.

Racine's basic charges haven't changed since his previous submission last year. The lawsuit stems from an incident in which Aleksandr Kogan, a University of Cambridge professor, gathered personal information from roughly 270,000 Facebook users as well as data from friends who had not given their consent to the collecting.

In 2015, Kogan provided the information to Cambridge Analytica's parent business, which worked on the campaign of former President Donald Trump. When the specifics of the incident were disclosed in 2018, Zuckerberg officially admitted responsibility.

Racine claims that Zuckerberg broke the Consumer Protection Procedures Act by misleading Facebook users about their data's protection and failing to notify a breach.

"Zuckerberg is not just a figurehead at Facebook; he is personally involved in nearly every major decision the company makes, and his level of influence is no secret," the complaint says. "Within Facebook, Zuckerberg directly oversaw the product development and engineering work that was exposing consumer data to abuse."

Facebook has previously faced government scrutiny for the Cambridge Analytica data dump. The Federal Trade Commission penalised Facebook $5 billion in 2019 for the event, and the firm was forced to adhere to new regulations aimed at increasing accountability in decisions affecting user privacy.

The Cambridge Analytica data breach, which was disclosed by various news sources in 2018, involved the London-based corporation getting access to user data in 2015 and utilising it to boost Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

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Attorney General Karl Racine of the District of Columbia has filed a lawsuit against Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in connection with the Facebook Cambridge Analytica incident.

Attorney General Karl Racine of the District of Columbia has filed a lawsuit against Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in connection with the Facebook Cambridge Analytica incident. According to the lawsuit, Zuckerberg was "personally accountable" for creating the loose privacy regulations that allowed the consulting business to gather user data without consent, then failing to notify users and ensure that the data was removed. It comes after an unsuccessful attempt to name Zuckerberg in a similar complaint against Facebook. Racine's basic charges haven't changed since his previous submission last year. The lawsuit stems from an incident in which Aleksandr Kogan, a University of Cambridge professor, gathered personal information from roughly 270,000 Facebook users as well as data from friends who had not given their consent to the collecting. In 2015, Kogan provided the information to Cambridge Analytica's parent business, which worked on the campaign of former President Donald Trump. When the specifics of the incident were disclosed in 2018, Zuckerberg officially admitted responsibility. Racine claims that Zuckerberg broke the Consumer Protection Procedures Act by misleading Facebook users about their data's protection and failing to notify a breach. "Zuckerberg is not just a figurehead at Facebook; he is personally involved in nearly every major decision the company makes, and his level of influence is no secret," the complaint says. "Within Facebook, Zuckerberg directly oversaw the product development and engineering work that was exposing consumer data to abuse." Facebook has previously faced government scrutiny for the Cambridge Analytica data dump. The Federal Trade Commission penalised Facebook $5 billion in 2019 for the event, and the firm was forced to adhere to new regulations aimed at increasing accountability in decisions affecting user privacy. The Cambridge Analytica data breach, which was disclosed by various news sources in 2018, involved the London-based corporation getting access to user data in 2015 and utilising it to boost Donald Trump's presidential campaign. WATCH WION LIVE HERE You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.

DC attorney general sues Mark Zuckerberg over Cambridge Analytica scandal

“I strongly supported Obama for President,” Elon Musk tweeted late last month, part of the spree of ideological comments accompanying his continuing takeover of Twitter, “but today’s Democratic Party has been hijacked by extremists.” Around the same time, he set the social-media platform ablaze by reposting a cartoon showing a stick figure comfortably on the center-left in 2008 redefined as a right-wing bigot by 2021 because the left-wing stick figure had raced way off to the left. Then this week, he expressed the same kind of thought in the abbreviated style for which the site is famous: “Twitter obv has a strong left wing bias.”

And now, at last, we have the news that he’s likely to allow Donald Trump to tweet freely once again.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/musk-says-he-will-reverse-twitter-ban-on-trump-477980">Musk says he will 'reverse' Twitter ban on Trump</a>

All of these comments and promises align the country’s richest man with the rightward side in our culture war. But though I don’t know Musk — I’ve never interviewed him or hung out with him in any secret billionaire lair — I think I know enough about him, and I know enough Silicon Valley people like him, to suggest that neither his tweeted self-descriptions nor the criticisms being lobbed his way capture what’s distinctive about his position and worldview.

A term like “conservative” doesn’t fit the Tesla tycoon. Even “libertarian,” while closer to the mark, associates Musk with a lot of ideas that I don’t think he particularly cares about. A better label comes from Virginia Postrel, in her 1998 book “The Future and Its Enemies”: Musk is what she calls a “dynamist,” meaning someone whose primary commitments are to exploration and discovery, someone who believes that the best society is one that’s always inventing, transforming, doing something new.

If you think this sounds uncontroversial, think again. First, the dynamist may not care where novelty and invention spring from. Unlike the purist libertarian, he might be indifferent to questions of public versus private spending, happy to embrace government help if that’s what it takes to get the new thing off the ground — and happy to take that help from regimes like Communist China no less than from our own. And he may be willing to risk much more than either the typical progressive or the typical conservative for the sake of innovation. Political principle, social stability and moral order are all potentially negotiable when discovery alone is your North Star.

Watch |&nbsp;'Permanent ban' is morally bad, Elon Musk to reverse Donald Trump's Twitter ban

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For many people, dynamism is contingent — on how invested you are in the world as it is, whether you stand to lose or benefit from innovations, and where your moral intuitions lie. (I am personally a dynamist about Musk’s Mars colony but not Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse; flying cars, yes, sex robots, not so much.) Even in the tech world, your appetite for dynamism depends on where you stand: If you’re lucky enough to work for one of Silicon Valley’s near-monopolies, the new powers of the age, you may not be that interested in further churn or change.

Musk himself may yet evolve into that kind of comfortable monopolist, but for now, pending the IPO for MarsCorp in 2047, he remains a dynamist in full. And seen in this light, his recent transformation from Obama Democrat to progressive foil makes perfect sense in light of the transformations that liberalism itself has undergone of late.

Liberalism in the Obama era was an essentially dynamist enterprise not because liberals were absolutely committed to capital-S Science but because those years encouraged a confidence that the major technological changes of the 21st century were making the world a more liberal place. Whether it was social media shaking Middle Eastern autocrats, the Obama campaign running circles around its Republican opponents with online organizing or just the general drift leftward on social issues that seemed to accompany the internet revolution, progressives around 2010 felt a general confidence that technological and political progress were conjoined.

Ever since Trump bent history’s arc his way, however, that confidence has diminished or collapsed. Now liberals increasingly regard the internet as the zone of monsters and misinformation, awash in illiberalism, easily manipulated by demagogues, a breeding ground for insurrectionists. And if digital technology has become particularly suspect, via the transitive property, so has the larger idea of innovating your way out of social or environmental problems — empowering the part of the environmental movement that wants to tame capitalism to save the planet, for instance, at the expense of the part that imagines taming climate change with fleets of Teslas and nuclear power plants.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/after-twitter-takeover-what-else-do-netizen-want-musk-to-buy-474843">After Twitter takeover, what else do netizens want Musk to buy!?</a>

Meanwhile, the values underlying dynamism — above all, the special pedestal given to free thinking and free speech — are also more suspect within liberalism today. In their place is a new regulatory spirit around culture as well as economics, a how-much-is-too-much attitude toward the circulation of potentially dangerous ideas, a belief in institutions of scientific and intellectual authority but not necessarily institutions devoted to wide-open inquiry.

Just as a dynamist might, at the extreme of the orientation, prefer a monarchy that protects innovation over a democracy that discourages it, some of today’s progressives are making the same move in reverse: If democracy is endangered by technological change and unfettered free speech, then so much the worse for free speech. The important thing is to save democratic self-government, even if you have to temporarily take the “liberties” out of the American Civil Liberties Union or put away your John Stuart Mill.

Whatever else Musk wants with Twitter — and obviously you should assume that he wants to make a lot of money — this seems like the ideological trend he hopes to resist or halt: the liberal retreat from dynamism, the progressive turn toward ideological regulation, the pervasive left-wing fear that the First Amendment and free speech are being weaponized by authoritarians and need some kind of check.

So now the question: If this was your ambition — setting aside whether you think it’s admirable or dangerous — would buying Twitter make sense?

The affirmative theory holds that because Twitter is both an essential digital town square and a place particularly populated by well-educated liberals, if Musk can make it succeed with a lighter-footprint approach to content moderation, from a dynamist perspective he might hope to accomplish two goals at once. First, he would be simply sustaining an important space in which free debate can happen. Second — assuming that he could come up with a light footprint that left-leaning users would accept — he would be gently training Twitter’s liberals back into their Obama-era belief that openness and dynamism are good things, that a marketplace of ideas can work without constant ideological supervision and constraint.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/digital-services-act-tesla-ceo-elon-musk-signals-agreement-with-eu-industry-chief-breton-477736">Digital Services Act: Tesla CEO Elon Musk signals agreement with EU industry chief Breton</a>

The more skeptical theory, on the other hand, suggests that Musk may be making a mistake somewhat characteristic of the Silicon Valley mentality and overestimating the importance of novel virtual spaces compared with the legacy institutions — East Coast, brick and mortar, academic and bureaucratic — that still give contemporary liberalism its actual shape and direction. That is to say, what you see on Twitter, the fads and mobs and performativity, may accelerate certain ideological transformations, but social media isn’t actually the place where these shifts are taking shape; it’s just the space in which the change becomes visible and legible to people on the outside.

So, for instance, if important media institutions are more doubtful about free speech than in the past, or if important academic fields are more likely to impose ideological loyalty oaths, or if important foundations and funders are creating a climate of intellectual conformity, a social media town platform is too far downstream of those changes to really help reverse them.

A free-speech-oriented Twitter can certainly surface individuals or even small-scale factions offering diversity and dissent. But institutions of employment and ambition will always matter most — there’s no app-based solution or simple blockchain fix if you think the Ivy League and the mainstream media have gone terribly astray. At some point you need to make change within those institutions themselves, start new ones — the Musk Schools! the Musk Herald-Tribune! the Musk Foundation! — or do both.

Since a big part of Musk’s success and wealth comes from looking for tech’s applications in the real world — meaning cars, rockets and tunnels, not just apps and tweets — it’s quite possible that he’s already considered all of this and that he has an ultimate vision for a Twitter as a virtual network that links reformed or revitalized institutions in the real world.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/truly-a-wonder-of-the-world-elon-musk-recalls-taj-mahal-visit-477819">‘Truly a wonder of the world’: Elon Musk recalls Taj Mahal visit</a>

Or alternatively, maybe he believes that very soon the virtual will fully displace the world of bricks and bodies and that in buying Twitter he’s literally buying the digital real estate where his fellow dynamists will build the great institutions of tomorrow.

It’s one of dynamism’s strengths as a guiding ideology that it can inspire those kinds of leaps. But its weakness is usually the same one that doomed Icarus. Sometimes you leap and have a bird’s wings to bear you upward. Sometimes, though, all you have is their disintegrating feathers — or, still worse, not their plumage but their tweets.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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“I strongly supported Obama for President,” Elon Musk tweeted late last month, part of the spree of ideological comments accompanying his continuing takeover of Twitter, “but today’s Democratic Party has been hijacked by extremists.

“I strongly supported Obama for President,” Elon Musk tweeted late last month, part of the spree of ideological comments accompanying his continuing takeover of Twitter, “but today’s Democratic Party has been hijacked by extremists.” Around the same time, he set the social-media platform ablaze by reposting a cartoon showing a stick figure comfortably on the center-left in 2008 redefined as a right-wing bigot by 2021 because the left-wing stick figure had raced way off to the left. Then this week, he expressed the same kind of thought in the abbreviated style for which the site is famous: “Twitter obv has a strong left wing bias.” And now, at last, we have the news that he’s likely to allow Donald Trump to tweet freely once again. Also read | Musk says he will 'reverse' Twitter ban on Trump All of these comments and promises align the country’s richest man with the rightward side in our culture war. But though I don’t know Musk — I’ve never interviewed him or hung out with him in any secret billionaire lair — I think I know enough about him, and I know enough Silicon Valley people like him, to suggest that neither his tweeted self-descriptions nor the criticisms being lobbed his way capture what’s distinctive about his position and worldview. A term like “conservative” doesn’t fit the Tesla tycoon. Even “libertarian,” while closer to the mark, associates Musk with a lot of ideas that I don’t think he particularly cares about. A better label comes from Virginia Postrel, in her 1998 book “The Future and Its Enemies”: Musk is what she calls a “dynamist,” meaning someone whose primary commitments are to exploration and discovery, someone who believes that the best society is one that’s always inventing, transforming, doing something new. If you think this sounds uncontroversial, think again. First, the dynamist may not care where novelty and invention spring from. Unlike the purist libertarian, he might be indifferent to questions of public versus private spending, happy to embrace government help if that’s what it takes to get the new thing off the ground — and happy to take that help from regimes like Communist China no less than from our own. And he may be willing to risk much more than either the typical progressive or the typical conservative for the sake of innovation. Political principle, social stability and moral order are all potentially negotiable when discovery alone is your North Star. Watch | 'Permanent ban' is morally bad, Elon Musk to reverse Donald Trump's Twitter ban For many people, dynamism is contingent — on how invested you are in the world as it is, whether you stand to lose or benefit from innovations, and where your moral intuitions lie. (I am personally a dynamist about Musk’s Mars colony but not Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse; flying cars, yes, sex robots, not so much.) Even in the tech world, your appetite for dynamism depends on where you stand: If you’re lucky enough to work for one of Silicon Valley’s near-monopolies, the new powers of the age, you may not be that interested in further churn or change. Musk himself may yet evolve into that kind of comfortable monopolist, but for now, pending the IPO for MarsCorp in 2047, he remains a dynamist in full. And seen in this light, his recent transformation from Obama Democrat to progressive foil makes perfect sense in light of the transformations that liberalism itself has undergone of late. Liberalism in the Obama era was an essentially dynamist enterprise not because liberals were absolutely committed to capital-S Science but because those years encouraged a confidence that the major technological changes of the 21st century were making the world a more liberal place. Whether it was social media shaking Middle Eastern autocrats, the Obama campaign running circles around its Republican opponents with online organizing or just the general drift leftward on social issues that seemed to accompany the internet revolution, progressives around 2010 felt a general confidence that technological and political progress were conjoined. Ever since Trump bent history’s arc his way, however, that confidence has diminished or collapsed. Now liberals increasingly regard the internet as the zone of monsters and misinformation, awash in illiberalism, easily manipulated by demagogues, a breeding ground for insurrectionists. And if digital technology has become particularly suspect, via the transitive property, so has the larger idea of innovating your way out of social or environmental problems — empowering the part of the environmental movement that wants to tame capitalism to save the planet, for instance, at the expense of the part that imagines taming climate change with fleets of Teslas and nuclear power plants. Also read | After Twitter takeover, what else do netizens want Musk to buy!? Meanwhile, the values underlying dynamism — above all, the special pedestal given to free thinking and free speech — are also more suspect within liberalism today. In their place is a new regulatory spirit around culture as well as economics, a how-much-is-too-much attitude toward the circulation of potentially dangerous ideas, a belief in institutions of scientific and intellectual authority but not necessarily institutions devoted to wide-open inquiry. Just as a dynamist might, at the extreme of the orientation, prefer a monarchy that protects innovation over a democracy that discourages it, some of today’s progressives are making the same move in reverse: If democracy is endangered by technological change and unfettered free speech, then so much the worse for free speech. The important thing is to save democratic self-government, even if you have to temporarily take the “liberties” out of the American Civil Liberties Union or put away your John Stuart Mill. Whatever else Musk wants with Twitter — and obviously you should assume that he wants to make a lot of money — this seems like the ideological trend he hopes to resist or halt: the liberal retreat from dynamism, the progressive turn toward ideological regulation, the pervasive left-wing fear that the First Amendment and free speech are being weaponized by authoritarians and need some kind of check. So now the question: If this was your ambition — setting aside whether you think it’s admirable or dangerous — would buying Twitter make sense? The affirmative theory holds that because Twitter is both an essential digital town square and a place particularly populated by well-educated liberals, if Musk can make it succeed with a lighter-footprint approach to content moderation, from a dynamist perspective he might hope to accomplish two goals at once. First, he would be simply sustaining an important space in which free debate can happen. Second — assuming that he could come up with a light footprint that left-leaning users would accept — he would be gently training Twitter’s liberals back into their Obama-era belief that openness and dynamism are good things, that a marketplace of ideas can work without constant ideological supervision and constraint. Also read | Digital Services Act: Tesla CEO Elon Musk signals agreement with EU industry chief Breton The more skeptical theory, on the other hand, suggests that Musk may be making a mistake somewhat characteristic of the Silicon Valley mentality and overestimating the importance of novel virtual spaces compared with the legacy institutions — East Coast, brick and mortar, academic and bureaucratic — that still give contemporary liberalism its actual shape and direction. That is to say, what you see on Twitter, the fads and mobs and performativity, may accelerate certain ideological transformations, but social media isn’t actually the place where these shifts are taking shape; it’s just the space in which the change becomes visible and legible to people on the outside. So, for instance, if important media institutions are more doubtful about free speech than in the past, or if important academic fields are more likely to impose ideological loyalty oaths, or if important foundations and funders are creating a climate of intellectual conformity, a social media town platform is too far downstream of those changes to really help reverse them. A free-speech-oriented Twitter can certainly surface individuals or even small-scale factions offering diversity and dissent. But institutions of employment and ambition will always matter most — there’s no app-based solution or simple blockchain fix if you think the Ivy League and the mainstream media have gone terribly astray. At some point you need to make change within those institutions themselves, start new ones — the Musk Schools! the Musk Herald-Tribune! the Musk Foundation! — or do both. Since a big part of Musk’s success and wealth comes from looking for tech’s applications in the real world — meaning cars, rockets and tunnels, not just apps and tweets — it’s quite possible that he’s already considered all of this and that he has an ultimate vision for a Twitter as a virtual network that links reformed or revitalized institutions in the real world. Also read | ‘Truly a wonder of the world’: Elon Musk recalls Taj Mahal visit Or alternatively, maybe he believes that very soon the virtual will fully displace the world of bricks and bodies and that in buying Twitter he’s literally buying the digital real estate where his fellow dynamists will build the great institutions of tomorrow. It’s one of dynamism’s strengths as a guiding ideology that it can inspire those kinds of leaps. But its weakness is usually the same one that doomed Icarus. Sometimes you leap and have a bird’s wings to bear you upward. Sometimes, though, all you have is their disintegrating feathers — or, still worse, not their plumage but their tweets. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. WATCH WION LIVE HERE:

What does Elon Musk want? Is Twitter the way to get it?

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was once touted to become the world's richest man, he has now slipped to the 12th spot. Zuckerberg was the face of the social media revolution, he has now become the face of big tech's tyranny. Palki Sharma brings you the story of Zuckerberg's fall.

Gravitas: How Mark Zuckerberg lost his fortune

Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has revamped Meta's company values as it faces investment concerns.

Touting pivot and an&nbsp;all-hands approach, he has unveiled a company overhaul after its shares had the biggest single-day slide in market value.

The huge drop, erasing over $200 billion from Meta's market capitalisation and around $29 billion from Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg's net worth, spilled over to the broader technology sector and dragged the Nasdaq Composite Index lower.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/deceitful-business-texas-sues-metas-facebook-over-facial-recognition-system-453354" hreflang="en">'Deceitful business': Texas sues Meta's Facebook over facial recognition system</a>

“‘Focus on long-term impact’ emphasizes long-term thinking and encourages us to extend the timeline for the impact we have, rather than optimizing for near-term wins,” Zuckerberg wrote in his post.&nbsp;

“We should take on the challenges that will be the most impactful, even if the full results won’t be seen for years.”

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Zuckerberg has an ironclad hold on Facebook Inc. He holds the majority of the company’s voting shares, controls its board of directors and has increasingly surrounded himself with executives who don’t appear to question his vision.

Meta reported a decline in daily active users from the previous quarter for the first time as competition with rivals like TikTok, the video sharing platform owned by China's ByteDance, heats up.

"As we build the next chapter of our company as Meta, we just updated the values that guide our work," Zuckerberg wrote.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/meta-threatens-eu-to-pull-facebook-instagram-on-failure-to-scrap-privacy-pact-451544" hreflang="en">Meta threatens EU to pull Facebook, Instagram on failure to scrap privacy pact</a>

Meta's new credo also calls for being direct, but respectful to colleagues, collaborating as "Metamates."

"Meta, Metamates, Me is about being good stewards of our company and mission," Zuckerberg wrote.

"It's about taking care of our company and each other."

Facebook last reworked its professed values in 2007, according to the company's co-founder and chief.

Critics have derided Facebook's rebrand as an attempted distraction from an avalanche of damaging revelations from whistleblower Frances Haugen.

The "Facebook Papers" revealed&nbsp;numerous instances where researchers and rank-and-file workers uncovered deep-seated problems that the company then overlooked or ignored.

(With inputs from agencies)

Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has revamped Meta's company values as it faces investment concerns. Touting pivot and an all-hands approach, he has unveiled a company overhaul after its shares had the biggest single-day slide in market value.

Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has revamped Meta's company values as it faces investment concerns. Touting pivot and an all-hands approach, he has unveiled a company overhaul after its shares had the biggest single-day slide in market value. The huge drop, erasing over $200 billion from Meta's market capitalisation and around $29 billion from Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg's net worth, spilled over to the broader technology sector and dragged the Nasdaq Composite Index lower. Also read | 'Deceitful business': Texas sues Meta's Facebook over facial recognition system “‘Focus on long-term impact’ emphasizes long-term thinking and encourages us to extend the timeline for the impact we have, rather than optimizing for near-term wins,” Zuckerberg wrote in his post. “We should take on the challenges that will be the most impactful, even if the full results won’t be seen for years.” Zuckerberg has an ironclad hold on Facebook Inc. He holds the majority of the company’s voting shares, controls its board of directors and has increasingly surrounded himself with executives who don’t appear to question his vision. Meta reported a decline in daily active users from the previous quarter for the first time as competition with rivals like TikTok, the video sharing platform owned by China's ByteDance, heats up. "As we build the next chapter of our company as Meta, we just updated the values that guide our work," Zuckerberg wrote. Also read | Meta threatens EU to pull Facebook, Instagram on failure to scrap privacy pact Meta's new credo also calls for being direct, but respectful to colleagues, collaborating as "Metamates." "Meta, Metamates, Me is about being good stewards of our company and mission," Zuckerberg wrote. "It's about taking care of our company and each other." Facebook last reworked its professed values in 2007, according to the company's co-founder and chief. Critics have derided Facebook's rebrand as an attempted distraction from an avalanche of damaging revelations from whistleblower Frances Haugen. The "Facebook Papers" revealed numerous instances where researchers and rank-and-file workers uncovered deep-seated problems that the company then overlooked or ignored. (With inputs from agencies)

‘Live in the future’: Mark Zuckerberg revamps company values as Meta faces investment concerns

In a letter sent by the advocacy group, Fairplay and its Children's Screen Time Action Network;&nbsp;rabbis, reverends, pastors and other religious leaders urged Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to permanently scrap the company's plan to launch an Instagram version aimed at young users.

Instagram halted its plans to roll out a kids' version of the photo-sharing app last September after facing mounting opposition.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/business-economy/meta-shares-sink-22-as-facebook-loses-one-million-daily-users-450000">Meta shares sink 22% as Facebook loses one million daily users</a>

"After much meditation and prayer, we assert that social media platforms that target immature brains, practice unethical data mining, and are inspired by profit motives are not a tool for the greater good of children," said the letter, which was signed by more than 70 religious leaders.

In recent months, Instagram and its parent company, Meta Platforms, formerly Facebook, have been questioned about their potential impact on the mental health, body image, and safety of young users, especially after an internal document leaked by whistleblower Frances Haugen about the company's attitude towards young users.

Instagram's head Adam Mosseri was grilled by a Senate panel in December about children's online safety. Meta is also being investigated by a coalition of state attorneys general for promoting Instagram to children despite potential risks.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/meta-threatens-eu-to-pull-facebook-instagram-on-failure-to-scrap-privacy-pact-451544">Meta threatens EU to pull Facebook, Instagram on failure to scrap privacy pact</a>

According to Meta, the leaked documents have been used to paint a false picture of the company's work.&nbsp;

The company has defended Instagram for kids, saying that the idea was to give younger users a safe and dedicated area to interact with the service.

Like other social media sites, Instagram prohibits children younger than 13 from joining its platform, although it says it knows there are users below this age group.

Using references from the Bible, the Qur'an, Pope Francis, and Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh, the faith groups called on Zuckerberg, who has said religion is "very important" in the past, to acknowledge both secular and spiritual concerns over the project.

Watch |&nbsp;How safe is Instagram for your kids? How is it impacting younger generation?

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/how-safe-is-instagram-for-your-kids-how-is-it-impacting-younger-generation-434996/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

The company declined to comment on the letter.

In its efforts to drive engagement on its platforms, Meta conducted a concerted outreach to the religious community last year.&nbsp;

Last year, the organisation, which has a team dedicated to faith partnerships, launched a new feature that allows users to request and send prayers on the site, sent out mini equipment kits for streaming worship during the COVID-19 pandemic, and held its first virtual faith summit.

(With inputs from agencies)

In a letter sent by the advocacy group, Fairplay and its Children's Screen Time Action Network; rabbis, reverends, pastors and other religious leaders urged Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to permanently scrap the company's plan to launch an Instagram version aimed at young users.

In a letter sent by the advocacy group, Fairplay and its Children's Screen Time Action Network; rabbis, reverends, pastors and other religious leaders urged Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to permanently scrap the company's plan to launch an Instagram version aimed at young users. Instagram halted its plans to roll out a kids' version of the photo-sharing app last September after facing mounting opposition. Also read | Meta shares sink 22% as Facebook loses one million daily users "After much meditation and prayer, we assert that social media platforms that target immature brains, practice unethical data mining, and are inspired by profit motives are not a tool for the greater good of children," said the letter, which was signed by more than 70 religious leaders. In recent months, Instagram and its parent company, Meta Platforms, formerly Facebook, have been questioned about their potential impact on the mental health, body image, and safety of young users, especially after an internal document leaked by whistleblower Frances Haugen about the company's attitude towards young users. Instagram's head Adam Mosseri was grilled by a Senate panel in December about children's online safety. Meta is also being investigated by a coalition of state attorneys general for promoting Instagram to children despite potential risks. Also read | Meta threatens EU to pull Facebook, Instagram on failure to scrap privacy pact According to Meta, the leaked documents have been used to paint a false picture of the company's work. The company has defended Instagram for kids, saying that the idea was to give younger users a safe and dedicated area to interact with the service. Like other social media sites, Instagram prohibits children younger than 13 from joining its platform, although it says it knows there are users below this age group. Using references from the Bible, the Qur'an, Pope Francis, and Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh, the faith groups called on Zuckerberg, who has said religion is "very important" in the past, to acknowledge both secular and spiritual concerns over the project. Watch | How safe is Instagram for your kids? How is it impacting younger generation? The company declined to comment on the letter. In its efforts to drive engagement on its platforms, Meta conducted a concerted outreach to the religious community last year. Last year, the organisation, which has a team dedicated to faith partnerships, launched a new feature that allows users to request and send prayers on the site, sent out mini equipment kits for streaming worship during the COVID-19 pandemic, and held its first virtual faith summit. (With inputs from agencies)

Religious leaders write to Zuckerberg asking for Instagram kids to be scrapped

Meta Platforms Inc has threatened the European Union that it will be forced to pull Facebook and Instagram if the bloc fails to scrap the privacy pact.

''The simple reality is that Meta, and many other businesses, organisations and services, rely on data transfers between the EU and the US in order to operate global services,'' the firm said in a statement.

Europe's top court in 2020 scrapped a transatlantic data transfer deal known as the Privacy Shield and relied on by thousands of companies for services ranging from cloud infrastructure to payroll and finance because of similar concerns.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/metas-shares-plummet-26-after-facebook-reports-a-decline-in-daily-active-users-450488/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

The United States and the EU have been trying to come up with a new pact in the two years since then. US&nbsp;Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said she was confident there would be a new accord which takes into account the EU court's concerns.

"If a new transatlantic data transfer framework is not adopted... we will likely be unable to offer a number of our most significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe," Meta wrote in its Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/assaulted-in-metaverse-woman-alleges-gang-rape-60-seconds-after-joining-metas-virtual-world-449784">Also read |&nbsp;Assaulted in Metaverse: Woman alleges 'gang rape' 60 seconds after joining Meta's virtual world</a>

The social media giant recently saw its worst-ever plunge in market value, after disappointing quarterly results that raised questions about its future.

The huge drop, erasing over $200 billion from Meta's market capitalization and around $29 billion from Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg's net worth, spilled over to the broader technology sector and dragged the Nasdaq Composite Index lower.

Fewer people checked their Facebook every day per quarter than they did the year before for the first time ever during the last three months of 2021, as per Meta.

Meta Chief Financial Officer Dave Wehner told financial analysts part of the usage decrease for the main Facebook app and website came from fewer COVID-19 lockdowns, which have tended to generate a boom in online activity.

He also blamed rising internet costs for consumers in India and increasing interest in ByteDance Inc's video-sharing app TikTok.

(With inputs from agencies)

Meta Platforms Inc has threatened the European Union that it will be forced to pull Facebook and Instagram if the bloc fails to scrap the privacy pact. ''The simple reality is that Meta, and many other businesses, organisations and services, rely on data transfers between the EU and the US in order to operate global services,'' the firm said in a statement.

Meta Platforms Inc has threatened the European Union that it will be forced to pull Facebook and Instagram if the bloc fails to scrap the privacy pact. ''The simple reality is that Meta, and many other businesses, organisations and services, rely on data transfers between the EU and the US in order to operate global services,'' the firm said in a statement. Europe's top court in 2020 scrapped a transatlantic data transfer deal known as the Privacy Shield and relied on by thousands of companies for services ranging from cloud infrastructure to payroll and finance because of similar concerns. The United States and the EU have been trying to come up with a new pact in the two years since then. US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said she was confident there would be a new accord which takes into account the EU court's concerns. "If a new transatlantic data transfer framework is not adopted... we will likely be unable to offer a number of our most significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe," Meta wrote in its Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Also read | Assaulted in Metaverse: Woman alleges 'gang rape' 60 seconds after joining Meta's virtual world The social media giant recently saw its worst-ever plunge in market value, after disappointing quarterly results that raised questions about its future. The huge drop, erasing over $200 billion from Meta's market capitalization and around $29 billion from Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg's net worth, spilled over to the broader technology sector and dragged the Nasdaq Composite Index lower. Fewer people checked their Facebook every day per quarter than they did the year before for the first time ever during the last three months of 2021, as per Meta. Meta Chief Financial Officer Dave Wehner told financial analysts part of the usage decrease for the main Facebook app and website came from fewer COVID-19 lockdowns, which have tended to generate a boom in online activity. He also blamed rising internet costs for consumers in India and increasing interest in ByteDance Inc's video-sharing app TikTok. (With inputs from agencies)

Meta threatens EU to pull Facebook, Instagram on failure to scrap privacy pact

Facebook owner Meta Platforms shares plunge 26% late on Wednesday after the social media company posted a weaker-than-expected forecast, blaming Apple's privacy changes and increased competition for users from rivals like TikTok.

Meta shares plunge 26%, Facebook reports a decline in daily active users

Facebook parent&nbsp;Meta&nbsp;Platforms Inc said on Monday that its research team has built a new artificial intelligence supercomputer that it thinks will be the fastest in the world when completed in mid-2022.

Meta&nbsp;said in a blog post that its new AI Research SuperCluster (RSC) would help the company build better AI models that can learn from trillions of examples, work across hundreds of languages, and analyze text, images and video together to determine if the content was harmful.

"This research will not only help keep people safe on our services today, but also in the future, as we build for the&nbsp;metaverse," the company said in a blog post.

The social media company changed its name in October to&nbsp;Meta&nbsp;to reflect its focus on the&nbsp;metaverse, which it thinks will be the successor to the mobile internet.

The&nbsp;metaverse, a broad term which has generated a lot of Silicon Valley buzz in recent months, refers to the idea of shared virtual environments which people can access through different devices and where they can work, play and socialize.

"The experiences we're building for the&nbsp;metaverse require enormous compute power (quintillions of operations/second!) and RSC will enable new AI models that can learn from trillions of examples, understand hundreds of languages, and more,"&nbsp;Meta&nbsp;Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post on Monday.

The company said it believed the supercomputer was currently among the fastest AI supercomputers running.

Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc said on Monday that its research team has built a new artificial intelligence supercomputer that it thinks will be the fastest in the world when completed in mid-2022.

Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc said on Monday that its research team has built a new artificial intelligence supercomputer that it thinks will be the fastest in the world when completed in mid-2022. Meta said in a blog post that its new AI Research SuperCluster (RSC) would help the company build better AI models that can learn from trillions of examples, work across hundreds of languages, and analyze text, images and video together to determine if the content was harmful. "This research will not only help keep people safe on our services today, but also in the future, as we build for the metaverse," the company said in a blog post. The social media company changed its name in October to Meta to reflect its focus on the metaverse, which it thinks will be the successor to the mobile internet. The metaverse, a broad term which has generated a lot of Silicon Valley buzz in recent months, refers to the idea of shared virtual environments which people can access through different devices and where they can work, play and socialize. "The experiences we're building for the metaverse require enormous compute power (quintillions of operations/second!) and RSC will enable new AI models that can learn from trillions of examples, understand hundreds of languages, and more," Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post on Monday. The company said it believed the supercomputer was currently among the fastest AI supercomputers running.

Meta says its new AI supercomputer will be world's fastest

A new lawsuit has claimed that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai colluded in online ad sales.

According to an amended antitrust complaint filed by Texas and 15 other states, the two tech giants teamed up and hammered out the terms of the agreement.

The deal was allegedly struck as part of Google's effort to counter header bidding, which publishers wanted to use to make more money from advertising placed on their websites, the filing said.

Also see |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/from-meatless-meat-to-web-30-here-are-the-tech-trends-that-can-dominate-in-2022-441762" hreflang="en">From meatless meat to Web 3.0: Here are the tech trends that can dominate in 2022</a>

"Google quickly realised that this innovation substantially threatened its exchange’s ability to demand a very large&nbsp;19 to 22 per cent,&nbsp;cut on all advertising transactions," the filing said.

"Following the agreement, Facebook curtailed its involvement with header bidding in return for Google giving Facebook information, speed, and other advantages."

Facebook, which has since become Meta Platforms Inc, said in a statement that the deal was not exclusive to Google and that other agreements have increased competition for ad placements. It said it was better for advertisers "while fairly compensating publishers."

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/facebook-google-slapped-with-huge-fines-in-france-over-cookies-442661" hreflang="en">Facebook, Google slapped with huge fines in France over 'cookies'</a>

Facebook’s former chief operating officer&nbsp;Sheryl Sandberg was “explicit that ‘this is a big deal strategically’” in a 2018 email thread about the deal that included Zuckerberg.

“We’re nearly ready to sign and need your approval to move forward,” the email read, according to the complaint. Zuckerberg wanted to meet with Sandberg and his other executives before making a decision, the complaint states.

In a statement, Google spokesperson Peter Schottenfels said the lawsuit is “full of inaccuracies and lacks legal merit.”

Meta spokesperson Chris Sgro said Friday that the company’s ad bidding agreement with Google and similar agreements it has with other bidding platforms “have helped to increase competition for ad placements.”

“These business relationships enable Meta to deliver more value to advertisers while fairly compensating publishers, resulting in better outcomes for all,” Sgro said.

(With inputs from agencies)

A new lawsuit has claimed that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai colluded in online ad sales. According to an amended antitrust complaint filed by Texas and 15 other states, the two tech giants teamed up and hammered out the terms of the agreement.

A new lawsuit has claimed that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai colluded in online ad sales. According to an amended antitrust complaint filed by Texas and 15 other states, the two tech giants teamed up and hammered out the terms of the agreement. The deal was allegedly struck as part of Google's effort to counter header bidding, which publishers wanted to use to make more money from advertising placed on their websites, the filing said. Also see | From meatless meat to Web 3.0: Here are the tech trends that can dominate in 2022 "Google quickly realised that this innovation substantially threatened its exchange’s ability to demand a very large 19 to 22 per cent, cut on all advertising transactions," the filing said. "Following the agreement, Facebook curtailed its involvement with header bidding in return for Google giving Facebook information, speed, and other advantages." Facebook, which has since become Meta Platforms Inc, said in a statement that the deal was not exclusive to Google and that other agreements have increased competition for ad placements. It said it was better for advertisers "while fairly compensating publishers." Also read| Facebook, Google slapped with huge fines in France over 'cookies' Facebook’s former chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg was “explicit that ‘this is a big deal strategically’” in a 2018 email thread about the deal that included Zuckerberg. “We’re nearly ready to sign and need your approval to move forward,” the email read, according to the complaint. Zuckerberg wanted to meet with Sandberg and his other executives before making a decision, the complaint states. In a statement, Google spokesperson Peter Schottenfels said the lawsuit is “full of inaccuracies and lacks legal merit.” Meta spokesperson Chris Sgro said Friday that the company’s ad bidding agreement with Google and similar agreements it has with other bidding platforms “have helped to increase competition for ad placements.” “These business relationships enable Meta to deliver more value to advertisers while fairly compensating publishers, resulting in better outcomes for all,” Sgro said. (With inputs from agencies)

New lawsuit alleges Facebook and Google colluded in online ad sales

Billionaire and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has bought more property in Hawaii amid protests from locals, according to reports.

The tech billionaire has bought 110 more acres of land, including a former sugar plantation reservoir on Kauai that unleashed a deadly flood 15 years ago, worth $17 million, Honolulu newspaper Star-Advertiser reported.

With this latest purchase, Zuckerberg’s estate, which he calls Ko’olau Ranch, has grown to nearly 1,500 acres, including&nbsp;a pristine forest, on Kauai's north shore.

The reservoir, whose dam broke which led to a flood that killed seven people in 2006, remains unrepaired and on the state’s list of high-risk dams.

But, Ben LaBolt, spokesman for the couple, told news agency AP that Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chang are committed to doing their part of fulfilling legal requirements and promoting safety of the reservoir.

The couple plan to extend farming, ranching, conservation and wildlife protection work on the land, LaBolt said. They already had 1,300 acres (526 hectares) on the island.

This is Zuckerberg's second purchase this year: In March, he paid $53 million for nearly 600 acres of land on Kauai that includes a public beach and a working cattle ranch. That added to the 750 acres he purchased nearby in 2014.

But Zuckerberg’s presence on the island has remained controversial.

According to Star-Advertiser, Zuckerberg had filed several lawsuits aimed at forcing these families to sell their land at a public court auction to the highest bidder, a legal action known as “quiet title and partition”.

He also reportedly built a six-foot wall last year, to cut off locals’ access to his estate.

(With inputs from agencies)

Billionaire and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has bought more property in Hawaii amid protests from locals, according to reports. The tech billionaire has bought 110 more acres of land, including a former sugar plantation reservoir on Kauai that unleashed a deadly flood 15 years ago, worth $17 million, Honolulu newspaper Star-Advertiser reported.

Billionaire and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has bought more property in Hawaii amid protests from locals, according to reports. The tech billionaire has bought 110 more acres of land, including a former sugar plantation reservoir on Kauai that unleashed a deadly flood 15 years ago, worth $17 million, Honolulu newspaper Star-Advertiser reported. With this latest purchase, Zuckerberg’s estate, which he calls Ko’olau Ranch, has grown to nearly 1,500 acres, including a pristine forest, on Kauai's north shore. The reservoir, whose dam broke which led to a flood that killed seven people in 2006, remains unrepaired and on the state’s list of high-risk dams. But, Ben LaBolt, spokesman for the couple, told news agency AP that Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chang are committed to doing their part of fulfilling legal requirements and promoting safety of the reservoir. The couple plan to extend farming, ranching, conservation and wildlife protection work on the land, LaBolt said. They already had 1,300 acres (526 hectares) on the island. This is Zuckerberg's second purchase this year: In March, he paid $53 million for nearly 600 acres of land on Kauai that includes a public beach and a working cattle ranch. That added to the 750 acres he purchased nearby in 2014. But Zuckerberg’s presence on the island has remained controversial. According to Star-Advertiser, Zuckerberg had filed several lawsuits aimed at forcing these families to sell their land at a public court auction to the highest bidder, a legal action known as “quiet title and partition”. He also reportedly built a six-foot wall last year, to cut off locals’ access to his estate. (With inputs from agencies)

Mark Zuckerberg buys 110 more acres of land, including deadly reservoir, in Hawaii

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that people can now send and receive messages from their face through smart glasses.

Facebook Messenger has introduced a software update in Ray Ban smart glasses which will help people send and hear messages.

''Rolling out more hands-free features for Ray-Ban Stories like the ability to send messages, hear message readouts, and make calls (all via Messenger), and also control the volume or pause and resume audio, all using your voice. We're just getting started, more updates to Ray-Ban Stories coming in 2022,'' said Zuckerberg on Facebook.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/meta-launches-stopnciiorg-to-put-a-stop-on-revenge-porn-434183" hreflang="en">Meta launches StopNCII.org to put a stop on revenge porn</a>

Facebook has been trying to tie together messaging across its suite of apps and first enabled it between Instagram and&nbsp;Messenger&nbsp;last September. It made a similar move with its namesake app and&nbsp;Messenger&nbsp;in August.

Facebook and iconic eyewear brand Ray-Ban launched their new smart glasses, the latest effort in a tricky, niche market but which the social media giant sees as a step toward its future.&nbsp;

The "Ray-Ban Stories" shades, worth&nbsp;$299, can take pictures and video upon the wearer's voice commands, and the frames can connect wirelessly to Facebook's platform through an app.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/facebook-advertisers-promoted-false-claims-about-climate-change-during-cop26-summit-430321">Also read |&nbsp;Facebook advertisers promoted false claims about climate change during COP26 summit</a>

The tech titan has invested heavily in virtual and augmented reality, developing hardware such as its Oculus VR headsets and working on wristband technologies to support augmented reality glasses.

Major tech firms including Amazon.com Inc, Alphabet Inc's Google, Microsoft Corp, Apple Inc, and Snap Inc have raced to develop various smart glasses products, but early offerings like Google Glass proved difficult to sell to consumers put off by high price points and design issues.

After facing criticism over its handling of user data, Meta has said it will not use the content of the photos or videos captured using the glasses and stored in the Facebook View app for personalizing ads, and said the glasses would be an "ads-free experience."

The glasses include an optional virtual assistant so photos and videos can be captured hands-free through voice commands. Facebook said an LED light on the glasses would show when the camera is on, to make other people aware when a wearer is taking a photo or video.

(With inputs from agencies)

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that people can now send and receive messages from their face through smart glasses. Facebook Messenger has introduced a software update in Ray Ban smart glasses which will help people send and hear messages.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that people can now send and receive messages from their face through smart glasses. Facebook Messenger has introduced a software update in Ray Ban smart glasses which will help people send and hear messages. ''Rolling out more hands-free features for Ray-Ban Stories like the ability to send messages, hear message readouts, and make calls (all via Messenger), and also control the volume or pause and resume audio, all using your voice. We're just getting started, more updates to Ray-Ban Stories coming in 2022,'' said Zuckerberg on Facebook. Also read | Meta launches StopNCII.org to put a stop on revenge porn Facebook has been trying to tie together messaging across its suite of apps and first enabled it between Instagram and Messenger last September. It made a similar move with its namesake app and Messenger in August. Facebook and iconic eyewear brand Ray-Ban launched their new smart glasses, the latest effort in a tricky, niche market but which the social media giant sees as a step toward its future. The "Ray-Ban Stories" shades, worth $299, can take pictures and video upon the wearer's voice commands, and the frames can connect wirelessly to Facebook's platform through an app. Also read | Facebook advertisers promoted false claims about climate change during COP26 summit The tech titan has invested heavily in virtual and augmented reality, developing hardware such as its Oculus VR headsets and working on wristband technologies to support augmented reality glasses. Major tech firms including Amazon.com Inc, Alphabet Inc's Google, Microsoft Corp, Apple Inc, and Snap Inc have raced to develop various smart glasses products, but early offerings like Google Glass proved difficult to sell to consumers put off by high price points and design issues. After facing criticism over its handling of user data, Meta has said it will not use the content of the photos or videos captured using the glasses and stored in the Facebook View app for personalizing ads, and said the glasses would be an "ads-free experience." The glasses include an optional virtual assistant so photos and videos can be captured hands-free through voice commands. Facebook said an LED light on the glasses would show when the camera is on, to make other people aware when a wearer is taking a photo or video. (With inputs from agencies)

Now, people can send and receive messages from their face through smart glasses

At least 300 Scientists & researchers have written an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg. They want the Meta CEO to open the company's doors to independent investigators. They want Facebook to clarify how its posts impact the mental health of teens.

300 researchers slam Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg

300 Scientists & researchers have written an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg. They want the Meta CEO to open the company's doors to independent investigators. They want Facebook to clarify how its posts impact the mental health of teens. Palki Sharma has a report.

Gravitas: An open letter to Mark Zuckerberg

Meta poses threat to mental health? Will Mark Zuckerberg come clean?

Facebook is in the headlines yet again. This time for advertising misleading and false claims about climate change during the COP26 summit.

It comes after conservative media network Newsmax ran an ad on Facebook that called man-made global warming a "hoax."

The advertisement, which had 200,000 views, had multiple versions. In one of them, "modern doomsayers" are condemned for wrongly predicting climate crises for decades.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/google-begins-rolling-out-november-2021-core-update-at-an-unusual-time-430280" hreflang="en">Google begins rolling out November 2021 core update at an unusual time</a>

Fossil fuel companies and lobbying groups spent $574,000 on "greenwashing" as per UK-based think-tank InfluenceMap.&nbsp;

"While ads like these run across many platforms, Facebook offers an extra layer of transparency by requiring them to be available to the public in our Ad Library for up to seven years after publication," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.

Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer said We continually reevaluate what the state of the world is and what is our role, which starts with trying to allow people free expression, and then intervening when there are harms happening that we can prevent."

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/apple-finally-gives-in-to-right-to-repair-movement-allows-users-to-self-repair-iphones-macs-430137" hreflang="en">Apple finally gives in to ‘right to repair’ movement, allows users to self-repair iPhones, Macs</a>

Facebook is already facing stinging criticism after whistleblower Frances Haugen revealed that the company knew its Instagram photo app had the potential to harm teen mental health.

Faced with a barrage of bad publicity due to Haugen's revelations, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had announced that the company will now be called Meta Platforms Inc., or Meta for short, to reflect what CEO Mark Zuckerberg said&nbsp;is its commitment to developing the new surround-yourself technology known as the “ metaverse.”

Skeptics have accused the company of trying to change the subject from the Facebook Papers, the trove of leaked documents that have plunged it into the biggest crisis since it was founded in Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room 17 years ago.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

Facebook is in the headlines yet again. This time for advertising misleading and false claims about climate change during the COP26 summit. It comes after conservative media network Newsmax ran an ad on Facebook that called man-made global warming a "hoax.

Facebook is in the headlines yet again. This time for advertising misleading and false claims about climate change during the COP26 summit. It comes after conservative media network Newsmax ran an ad on Facebook that called man-made global warming a "hoax." The advertisement, which had 200,000 views, had multiple versions. In one of them, "modern doomsayers" are condemned for wrongly predicting climate crises for decades. Also read | Google begins rolling out November 2021 core update at an unusual time Fossil fuel companies and lobbying groups spent $574,000 on "greenwashing" as per UK-based think-tank InfluenceMap. "While ads like these run across many platforms, Facebook offers an extra layer of transparency by requiring them to be available to the public in our Ad Library for up to seven years after publication," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer said We continually reevaluate what the state of the world is and what is our role, which starts with trying to allow people free expression, and then intervening when there are harms happening that we can prevent." Also read | Apple finally gives in to ‘right to repair’ movement, allows users to self-repair iPhones, Macs Facebook is already facing stinging criticism after whistleblower Frances Haugen revealed that the company knew its Instagram photo app had the potential to harm teen mental health. Faced with a barrage of bad publicity due to Haugen's revelations, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had announced that the company will now be called Meta Platforms Inc., or Meta for short, to reflect what CEO Mark Zuckerberg said is its commitment to developing the new surround-yourself technology known as the “ metaverse.” Skeptics have accused the company of trying to change the subject from the Facebook Papers, the trove of leaked documents that have plunged it into the biggest crisis since it was founded in Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room 17 years ago. (With inputs from agencies)

Facebook advertisers promoted false claims about climate change during COP26 summit

Metaverse has everyone thinking about it. From those who fully understood what metaverse is to those who are too drowned in information to realise anything about it, everyone is on the bandwagon. Social media is full of jokes, memes and other articulate tomfoolery appreciating Mark Zuckerberg's new frontier in their own way.

But governments making fun of good-ol' Mark and his metaverse? Well this wasn't heard of. Until now.

Iceland's tourism authorities posted a funny video in which an actor invites everyone to 'Icelandverse'

Icelandic actor Jorundur Ragnarsson or 'Zack Mosbergsson' as he has been named in the video, appears to sport Zuckerberg's hairstyle and dressing sense.

The video pokes fun at Zuckerberg and metaverse.

"Today I want to present a revolutionary way to connect our world, without being super-weird," says 'MOsbergsson' in the video.

Icelandverse,&nbsp;he says is an 'enhanced actual reality', because well, Iceland exists in real world. Dig at&nbsp;virtual universe? Very much.

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/nasa-releases-breathtaking-video-of-davinci-mission-to-venus-428811">NASA releases breathtaking video of DAVINCI mission to Venus</a>

As he goes on talking, Mosbergsson encounters a door but can't open it. He then appears to wait for somebody to come and open. This is an apparent dig at Zuckerberg's insistence on others opening doors for him. The video pokes fun at Zuckerberg even more.

Check out the video

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The video has got more than 900,000 views and hundreds of likes.

But the best part? Mark Zuckerberg himself has commented on it.

“Amazing. I need to make a trip to the Icelandverse soon. Glad you're wearing sunscreen too,” he has commented.

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/trending/nurse-finds-gold-bible-worth-usd-13-million-in-a-field-427808">Nurse finds gold Bible worth USD 1.3 million in a field</a>

Iceland tourism authorities responded by saying, “Oh, hi Mark! You're always welcome. Icelandverse is open 24/7!”

The banter has got its own fanbase!

Metaverse has everyone thinking about it. From those who fully understood what metaverse is to those who are too drowned in information to realise anything about it, everyone is on the bandwagon.

Metaverse has everyone thinking about it. From those who fully understood what metaverse is to those who are too drowned in information to realise anything about it, everyone is on the bandwagon. Social media is full of jokes, memes and other articulate tomfoolery appreciating Mark Zuckerberg's new frontier in their own way. But governments making fun of good-ol' Mark and his metaverse? Well this wasn't heard of. Until now. Iceland's tourism authorities posted a funny video in which an actor invites everyone to 'Icelandverse' Icelandic actor Jorundur Ragnarsson or 'Zack Mosbergsson' as he has been named in the video, appears to sport Zuckerberg's hairstyle and dressing sense. The video pokes fun at Zuckerberg and metaverse. "Today I want to present a revolutionary way to connect our world, without being super-weird," says 'MOsbergsson' in the video. Icelandverse, he says is an 'enhanced actual reality', because well, Iceland exists in real world. Dig at virtual universe? Very much. Also Read | NASA releases breathtaking video of DAVINCI mission to Venus As he goes on talking, Mosbergsson encounters a door but can't open it. He then appears to wait for somebody to come and open. This is an apparent dig at Zuckerberg's insistence on others opening doors for him. The video pokes fun at Zuckerberg even more. Check out the video × The video has got more than 900,000 views and hundreds of likes. But the best part? Mark Zuckerberg himself has commented on it. “Amazing. I need to make a trip to the Icelandverse soon. Glad you're wearing sunscreen too,” he has commented. Also Read | Nurse finds gold Bible worth USD 1.3 million in a field Iceland tourism authorities responded by saying, “Oh, hi Mark! You're always welcome. Icelandverse is open 24/7!” The banter has got its own fanbase!

Watch: Iceland Tourism mocks metaverse in funny ad, Mark Zuckerberg responds

One of Mark Zuckerberg’s first steps toward building the metaverse may be physical instead of virtual.

Meta, the social media company formerly known as Facebook, has discussed opening retail stores that will eventually span the world, said people with knowledge of the project and company documents viewed by The New York Times. The stores would be used to introduce people to devices made by the company’s Reality Labs division, such as virtual reality headsets and, eventually, augmented reality glasses, they said.

These devices are gateways to the metaverse, a futuristic digital world where people move from virtual to augmented versions of reality almost seamlessly. Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO, last week renamed his company Meta and laid out a vision for pursuing the metaverse as the next social platform. The stores would help show people that virtual reality and augmented reality can be fun and exciting, exactly the way Zuckerberg sees it.

The aim of the stores is to make the world “more open and connected,” according to the company documents viewed by The Times. They are also intended to spark emotions like “curiosity, closeness,” as well as a sense of feeling “welcomed” while experimenting with headsets in a “judgment free journey,” according to the documents.

Discussions about physical stores predated Facebook’s rebranding by many months, with serious work on the initiative having started last year, the people said. And the project, which is still in development, may not proceed, they said. But if Meta moves forward with stores, it would be a first for a tech giant that has existed largely digitally, with more than 3.5 billion people using its apps such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.

A Meta spokeswoman declined to comment.

Zuckerberg has talked up the metaverse as his company grapples with regulatory and societal challenges. Frances Haugen, a former employee turned whistleblower, amassed thousands of pages of internal documents and recently shared them with lawmakers and the news media. She has said that Facebook was not doing enough to protect society from the harms it causes. Her disclosures have drawn scrutiny from legislators and regulators, though it is unclear how strong her case is.

Skepticism about the metaverse also abounds. While Meta’s Reality Labs division has had modest past success with the Oculus Quest 2, a low-priced headset that was popular last year, virtual reality remains a niche market for hobbyists and enthusiasts. The hardware is often costly and can be difficult to use. Some people have reported that the headsets nauseate them.

“We are, at best guess, at least five to 10 years out from a fully fleshed out Meta product or service,” said Tim Derdenger, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. He said what Meta was working on was akin to the computer game Second Life from the early 2000s, calling it “a second shot at a Second Life-like service, but that is hopefully more immersive.”

Still, Zuckerberg has said he sees the moment to build what he believes will be the next major shift in computing platforms since the smartphone era. In that future, Zuckerberg’s apps would no longer be beholden to the rules dictated by Apple and Google, which own the app stores that distribute Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.

Technology companies have gone the brick-and-mortar path before. Gateway, a personal-computer maker, had its own stores in the 1990s. Apple has retail stores so people can test out devices and get their questions answered. Microsoft, Amazon and others have followed with their own stores as well.

In recent years, Meta had experimented with some physical retail efforts. It opened “pop-up” kiosks at airports and a pop-up store in Manhattan’s SoHo district to show its Oculus hardware products. It also had a pop-up location with Macy’s in 2018, with the aim of bringing more small business onto the platform.

Should Meta’s new stores proceed, they would feature products such as Portal devices — teleconferencing gadgets that let people video chat over Facebook — as well as the Oculus headsets, the company documents said. The stores could also include voice-activated sunglasses that Meta developed with Ray-Ban, which people can use to take photos and video.

Early designs for Meta’s stores appeared modern, with a flat, minimalist aesthetic to the building exteriors and subtle placement of the Facebook brand, according to the documents. The company considered naming its stores Facebook Hub, Facebook Commons, Facebook Innovations, Facebook Reality Store and From Facebook, before eventually settling on the Facebook Store as a leading candidate, the documents said.

It was unclear how the Meta rebranding would affect the naming of the stores. Andrew Bosworth, a longtime Facebook executive who will become Meta’s chief technology officer, said last week that the Oculus brand would be discontinued and replaced by the Meta name. The Oculus Quest will become the Meta Quest, while the Facebook Portal will be rebranded the Meta Portal, he said.

The flagship Facebook Store had been planned for Burlingame, California, where Meta has an office for its Reality Labs employees. It was also unclear whether those plans would continue.

One of Mark Zuckerberg’s first steps toward building the metaverse may be physical instead of virtual. Meta, the social media company formerly known as Facebook, has discussed opening retail stores that will eventually span the world, said people with knowledge of the project and company documents viewed by The New York Times.

One of Mark Zuckerberg’s first steps toward building the metaverse may be physical instead of virtual. Meta, the social media company formerly known as Facebook, has discussed opening retail stores that will eventually span the world, said people with knowledge of the project and company documents viewed by The New York Times. The stores would be used to introduce people to devices made by the company’s Reality Labs division, such as virtual reality headsets and, eventually, augmented reality glasses, they said. These devices are gateways to the metaverse, a futuristic digital world where people move from virtual to augmented versions of reality almost seamlessly. Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO, last week renamed his company Meta and laid out a vision for pursuing the metaverse as the next social platform. The stores would help show people that virtual reality and augmented reality can be fun and exciting, exactly the way Zuckerberg sees it. The aim of the stores is to make the world “more open and connected,” according to the company documents viewed by The Times. They are also intended to spark emotions like “curiosity, closeness,” as well as a sense of feeling “welcomed” while experimenting with headsets in a “judgment free journey,” according to the documents. Discussions about physical stores predated Facebook’s rebranding by many months, with serious work on the initiative having started last year, the people said. And the project, which is still in development, may not proceed, they said. But if Meta moves forward with stores, it would be a first for a tech giant that has existed largely digitally, with more than 3.5 billion people using its apps such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. A Meta spokeswoman declined to comment. Zuckerberg has talked up the metaverse as his company grapples with regulatory and societal challenges. Frances Haugen, a former employee turned whistleblower, amassed thousands of pages of internal documents and recently shared them with lawmakers and the news media. She has said that Facebook was not doing enough to protect society from the harms it causes. Her disclosures have drawn scrutiny from legislators and regulators, though it is unclear how strong her case is. Skepticism about the metaverse also abounds. While Meta’s Reality Labs division has had modest past success with the Oculus Quest 2, a low-priced headset that was popular last year, virtual reality remains a niche market for hobbyists and enthusiasts. The hardware is often costly and can be difficult to use. Some people have reported that the headsets nauseate them. “We are, at best guess, at least five to 10 years out from a fully fleshed out Meta product or service,” said Tim Derdenger, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. He said what Meta was working on was akin to the computer game Second Life from the early 2000s, calling it “a second shot at a Second Life-like service, but that is hopefully more immersive.” Still, Zuckerberg has said he sees the moment to build what he believes will be the next major shift in computing platforms since the smartphone era. In that future, Zuckerberg’s apps would no longer be beholden to the rules dictated by Apple and Google, which own the app stores that distribute Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. Technology companies have gone the brick-and-mortar path before. Gateway, a personal-computer maker, had its own stores in the 1990s. Apple has retail stores so people can test out devices and get their questions answered. Microsoft, Amazon and others have followed with their own stores as well. In recent years, Meta had experimented with some physical retail efforts. It opened “pop-up” kiosks at airports and a pop-up store in Manhattan’s SoHo district to show its Oculus hardware products. It also had a pop-up location with Macy’s in 2018, with the aim of bringing more small business onto the platform. Should Meta’s new stores proceed, they would feature products such as Portal devices — teleconferencing gadgets that let people video chat over Facebook — as well as the Oculus headsets, the company documents said. The stores could also include voice-activated sunglasses that Meta developed with Ray-Ban, which people can use to take photos and video. Early designs for Meta’s stores appeared modern, with a flat, minimalist aesthetic to the building exteriors and subtle placement of the Facebook brand, according to the documents. The company considered naming its stores Facebook Hub, Facebook Commons, Facebook Innovations, Facebook Reality Store and From Facebook, before eventually settling on the Facebook Store as a leading candidate, the documents said. It was unclear how the Meta rebranding would affect the naming of the stores. Andrew Bosworth, a longtime Facebook executive who will become Meta’s chief technology officer, said last week that the Oculus brand would be discontinued and replaced by the Meta name. The Oculus Quest will become the Meta Quest, while the Facebook Portal will be rebranded the Meta Portal, he said. The flagship Facebook Store had been planned for Burlingame, California, where Meta has an office for its Reality Labs employees. It was also unclear whether those plans would continue.

To build the metaverse, Meta first wants to build stores

Microsoft President Brad Smith has downplayed the metaverse 'hype' and said that it still requires a lot of work.

According to Smith, ''We're all talking about the metaverse as if we're entering some new dimension. This is not like dying and going to heaven. We're all going to be living in the real world with people.''

"I think (the metaverse) will be very big. Everyone is going to be entering this. We have to ensure that it protects privacy, digital safety and protects against disinformation, manipulation. We have a lot to clean up."

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/microsoft-ceo-satya-nadella-launches-3d-avatars-enters-metaverse-race-426360" hreflang="en">Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella launches 3D avatars, enters metaverse race</a>

His statement comes a day after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella unveiled three-dimensional versions in the company's teams app and stepped into the world of metaverse.

Smith highlighted that metaverse needs Big Tech actors like Facebook, Microsoft, Google and Apple would likely each develop their own versions of metaverse.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/tech-it-out-what-is-the-metaverse-424223/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

As Covid lockdown measures and work-from-home policies pushed more people online for both business and pleasure, the concept has surged in popularity during the pandemic.

During an interview he sidelines of Lisbon's Web Summit, he also said that ''Tech is going to have to lean in...with real concrete ideas...even make concessions, so that we can all compromise and build a common platform that better protects people than ... the internet as a whole has in recent past.''

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/what-is-metaverse-the-new-buzzword-in-internet-technology-412364">Also read |&nbsp;What is metaverse, the new buzzword in internet technology?</a>

"Government (will) see through that, and it's not going to bode well for the sector...We sort of need to get real."

Mark Zuckerberg renamed&nbsp;Facebook Inc. to&nbsp; Meta Platforms Inc. or Meta for short.&nbsp;

Facebook as 'Meta' in a strategic rebranding move that experts believed was a distraction from its privacy violations.

In a stinging rebuke,&nbsp;whistleblower Frances Haugen had accused&nbsp;the company of yet again prioritising expansion over people's safety.

(With inputs from agencies)

Microsoft President Brad Smith has downplayed the metaverse 'hype' and said that it still requires a lot of work. According to Smith, ''We're all talking about the metaverse as if we're entering some new dimension.

Microsoft President Brad Smith has downplayed the metaverse 'hype' and said that it still requires a lot of work. According to Smith, ''We're all talking about the metaverse as if we're entering some new dimension. This is not like dying and going to heaven. We're all going to be living in the real world with people.'' "I think (the metaverse) will be very big. Everyone is going to be entering this. We have to ensure that it protects privacy, digital safety and protects against disinformation, manipulation. We have a lot to clean up." Also read | Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella launches 3D avatars, enters metaverse race His statement comes a day after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella unveiled three-dimensional versions in the company's teams app and stepped into the world of metaverse. Smith highlighted that metaverse needs Big Tech actors like Facebook, Microsoft, Google and Apple would likely each develop their own versions of metaverse. As Covid lockdown measures and work-from-home policies pushed more people online for both business and pleasure, the concept has surged in popularity during the pandemic. During an interview he sidelines of Lisbon's Web Summit, he also said that ''Tech is going to have to lean in...with real concrete ideas...even make concessions, so that we can all compromise and build a common platform that better protects people than ... the internet as a whole has in recent past.'' Also read | What is metaverse, the new buzzword in internet technology? "Government (will) see through that, and it's not going to bode well for the sector...We sort of need to get real." Mark Zuckerberg renamed Facebook Inc. to Meta Platforms Inc. or Meta for short. Facebook as 'Meta' in a strategic rebranding move that experts believed was a distraction from its privacy violations. In a stinging rebuke, whistleblower Frances Haugen had accused the company of yet again prioritising expansion over people's safety. (With inputs from agencies)

'Requires lot of work': Microsoft President Brad Smith downplays metaverse 'hype'

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has launched three-dimensional avatars and immersive meetings in a bid to enter the metaverse race.

The company is going to roll out a collaborative platform for virtual experiences that will combine HoloLens meetings with mixed reality.

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The metaverse is here, and it’s not only transforming how we see the world but how we participate in it – from the factory floor to the meeting room. Take a look. <a href="https://t.co/h5tsdYMXRD">pic.twitter.com/h5tsdYMXRD</a>
— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) <a href="https://twitter.com/satyanadella/status/1455624165201887234?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 2, 2021</a></blockquote>
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The metaverse broadly refers to the idea of a shared virtual platform that people can access through different devices and where they can move through digital environments.

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According to Nadella, ''As the digital and physical worlds come together, we are creating an entirely new platform layer, which is the metaverse.''

''In a sense the metaverse enables us to embed computing into the real world and embed the real world into computing, bringing real presence to any digital space,'' he added.

Microsoft will update its Teams app to push towards metaverse environment that will ''transform how we see the world but how we participate in it.''

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/what-is-metaverse-the-new-buzzword-in-internet-technology-412364">Also read |&nbsp;What is metaverse, the new buzzword in internet technology?</a>

It comes after Mark Zuckerberg changed Facebook's name to Meta Platforms Inc to reflect its focus on building the ''metaverse.''

As Covid lockdown measures and work-from-home policies pushed more people online for both business and pleasure, the concept has surged in popularity during the pandemic.

Microsoft, which owns Xbox and the world-building game Minecraft, is also a key player in the gaming world.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/trending/facebook-is-now-meta-but-another-company-pocketted-money-from-all-the-buzz-425058">Also read |&nbsp;Facebook is now Meta, but another company pocketted money from all the buzz</a>

Recently, metaverse has become one of the tech sector's hottest buzzwords, with companies pouring millions of dollars into its development.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has talked about planning for "a metaverse or mixed-reality construct."

Fortnite's owners Epic Games said in April that $1 billion of funding raised recently would be used to support its "vision for the metaverse".

(With inputs from agencies)

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has launched three-dimensional avatars and immersive meetings in a bid to enter the metaverse race. The company is going to roll out a collaborative platform for virtual experiences that will combine HoloLens meetings with mixed reality.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has launched three-dimensional avatars and immersive meetings in a bid to enter the metaverse race. The company is going to roll out a collaborative platform for virtual experiences that will combine HoloLens meetings with mixed reality. The metaverse is here, and it’s not only transforming how we see the world but how we participate in it – from the factory floor to the meeting room. Take a look. pic.twitter.com/h5tsdYMXRD — Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) November 2, 2021 × The metaverse broadly refers to the idea of a shared virtual platform that people can access through different devices and where they can move through digital environments. According to Nadella, ''As the digital and physical worlds come together, we are creating an entirely new platform layer, which is the metaverse.'' ''In a sense the metaverse enables us to embed computing into the real world and embed the real world into computing, bringing real presence to any digital space,'' he added. Microsoft will update its Teams app to push towards metaverse environment that will ''transform how we see the world but how we participate in it.'' Also read | What is metaverse, the new buzzword in internet technology? It comes after Mark Zuckerberg changed Facebook's name to Meta Platforms Inc to reflect its focus on building the ''metaverse.'' As Covid lockdown measures and work-from-home policies pushed more people online for both business and pleasure, the concept has surged in popularity during the pandemic. Microsoft, which owns Xbox and the world-building game Minecraft, is also a key player in the gaming world. Also read | Facebook is now Meta, but another company pocketted money from all the buzz Recently, metaverse has become one of the tech sector's hottest buzzwords, with companies pouring millions of dollars into its development. Xbox boss Phil Spencer has talked about planning for "a metaverse or mixed-reality construct." Fortnite's owners Epic Games said in April that $1 billion of funding raised recently would be used to support its "vision for the metaverse". (With inputs from agencies)

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella launches 3D avatars, enters metaverse race

Whistleblower Frances Haugen has denounced the recent Facebook's Meta rebranding urging her former boss Mark Zuckerberg to step down. She has accused the company of yet again prioritising expansion over people's safety.

Whistleblower Frances Haugen denounces Facebook's Meta rebranding

In a call for Mark Zuckerberg to step down, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen said the business will be better off with a leader, who focuses on user safety. &nbsp;&nbsp;

The whistleblower delivered the strongest call for guard change at the social media giant. &nbsp;

Facebook’s parent company, which rebranded to Meta last week, is unlikely to change if its founder remains in-charge, said Haugen. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-wealthier-than-entire-pakistans-gdp-425852" hreflang="en">Tesla CEO Elon Musk wealthier than entire Pakistan’s GDP</a>

The ex-Facebook employee, who leaked tens of thousands of internal documents, which give details about the company’s struggles with user safety and misinformation was speaking at the Web Summit in Lisbon. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Haugen has also criticised Zuckerberg’s “unconscionable” decision to invest in metaverse concept rather than solving its issues. &nbsp;

When asked if Zuckerberg should step down, Haugen said, “I think Facebook will be stronger with someone, who is willing to focus on safety, so yes.” &nbsp;

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/facebook-is-failing-to-safeguard-users-from-covid-19-disinformation-research-425995">Facebook is failing to safeguard users from COVID-19 disinformation: Research</a>

“Mark holds 54% of the voting shares in Facebook. He is the chairman and the CEO, and I think that at a minimum the shareholders have the right to actually choose their CEO. And so, I think it is unlikely the company will change if he remains the CEO,” said Haugen. &nbsp;

“And I hope that he can see that there is so much good he could do in the world, and maybe it’s a chance for someone else to maybe take the reins.” &nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

In a call for Mark Zuckerberg to step down, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen said the business will be better off with a leader, who focuses on user safety.

In a call for Mark Zuckerberg to step down, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen said the business will be better off with a leader, who focuses on user safety. The whistleblower delivered the strongest call for guard change at the social media giant. Facebook’s parent company, which rebranded to Meta last week, is unlikely to change if its founder remains in-charge, said Haugen. Also Read: Tesla CEO Elon Musk wealthier than entire Pakistan’s GDP The ex-Facebook employee, who leaked tens of thousands of internal documents, which give details about the company’s struggles with user safety and misinformation was speaking at the Web Summit in Lisbon. Haugen has also criticised Zuckerberg’s “unconscionable” decision to invest in metaverse concept rather than solving its issues. When asked if Zuckerberg should step down, Haugen said, “I think Facebook will be stronger with someone, who is willing to focus on safety, so yes.” Also Read | Facebook is failing to safeguard users from COVID-19 disinformation: Research “Mark holds 54% of the voting shares in Facebook. He is the chairman and the CEO, and I think that at a minimum the shareholders have the right to actually choose their CEO. And so, I think it is unlikely the company will change if he remains the CEO,” said Haugen. “And I hope that he can see that there is so much good he could do in the world, and maybe it’s a chance for someone else to maybe take the reins.” (With inputs from agencies)

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg should step down, says whistleblower Frances Haugen

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