Facebook, the social media company behind the outdated titular app as well as Instagram and WhatsApp, has changed its name. The company’s new name is Meta, reflecting a new aim. That aim, according to founder and owner Mark Zuckerberg, is to create an online “metaverse” for work and play. Let’s define the term metaverse, just to see what he is hinting at, shall we? According to the New York Post, a metaverse is a “shared virtual world environment which people can access via the internet.” Gee, I didn’t know Mark Zuckerberg liked The Matrix so much as to rip it off in real life. Granted, the metaverse seems to be a direction where many tech firms are heading. However, that’s not what this entry is about. We have to examine why Meta (the former Facebook) changed its name, and why we should all be very worried about Big Tech going too far.
Now, that’s not to say that Big Tech isn’t a problem now, though. Conservatives have been crying wolf on censorship by Facebook and Twitter for years now, but their arguments aren’t entirely frivolous. If anyone gets censored for expressing their beliefs, then technically speaking, anyone is at risk of the same fate. However, the First Amendment that these “censored” conservatives love to bring up only applies to government censorship. Unless Mark Zuckerberg becomes President or his proposed metaverse falls into government influence, being removed from a social media service does not legally violate First Amendment rights. After all, as I would tell those “censored” conservatives, we all had to agree to the same set of terms and conditions to even use the platform. I know no one reads them, but they’re there for a good reason.
Recently, a whistleblower leaked massive amounts of information to the Wall Street Journal. There are many key takeaways from this report, any many of them are troubling in the extreme. Elites on the platform often get away with spreading hatred or misinformation, which has led to the incitement of violence in extreme cases (such as the Capitol Insurrection). Their app Instagram is incredibly toxic, especially for young girls. The company has even lost track of how many users are on their platforms due to duplicate accounts benign created. In short, Facebook’s created a clusterf***, and it can’t contain the damage done to its platforms. I can’t imagine a company being more out of touch than that.
As for Meta and the metaverse, I strongly lean towards a negative stance. On the one hand, it seems cool to be able to communicate online further, but as this pandemic has shown, people generally like communicating in person more. Personally, I’m good with either, but I understand the fears relating to the metaverse. After all, this concept was first introduced in sci-fi dystopias like Ready Player One, and some primitive metaverses can be argued to exist in real life. Some of these are already popular, like Roblox and Minecraft.
However, the problem will be if government takes control of the metaverse or if the amount of companies controlling it is miniscule. Then, the metaverse will likely become a propaganda tool or an advertising algorithm, respectively. However, worse still would be if misinformation spreads on the metaverse like on the traditional Internet and social media alike. QAnon and its associated far-right movement are already eroding American democracy, but imagine that on the metaverse, where it would be even more accessible than it is now. In fact, I’d go so far as to say even more people would be ensnared by far-right conspiracy theories such as QAnon and the Big Lie, to the point where they would be seen as fact by wider society.
In short, the corporatization of the metaverse would lead to a society that could be called anarcho-capitalist due to such extreme corporate influence. However, if the government takes control, then American democracy will further erode and maybe give way to a China-like state of mass online surveillance. And if misinformation and conspiracy theories take hold either way, whether through corporate negligence or government propaganda, the very idea of truth may be lost. The metaverse may have its benefits, but if abused to its fullest potential, it has Orwellian capabilities. The pressure is on our current government to do literally anything to curb Meta and the rest of Big Tech, or else America as a whole may very well end up suckered in to their same insidious game.
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