Facebook says it will hire 10,000 people in the European Union to work on a new computing platform over the next five years.
The high-skilled professionals will assist construct “the metaverse,” a futuristic concept for connecting people online that includes augmented and virtual reality, according to a blog post published by the firm on Sunday.
While dealing with other issues such as antitrust crackdowns, the testimony of a former whistleblowing employee, and concerns about how the company handles vaccine-related and political misinformation on its platform, Facebook executives have been touting the metaverse as the next big thing after the mobile internet.
In response to a Wall Street Journal report about the business’s inability to detect and remove hateful and extremely violent posts, the firm defended its approach to combating hate speech in a separate blog post published on Sunday.
“This investment (in new jobs) is a vote of confidence in the strength of the European tech industry and the potential of European tech talent,” the company said.
