Facebook’s decision to shift its focus from social networking to virtual reality worlds, now broadly called the “metaverse,” has caused disarray throughout the company, according to a report in the New York Times. 

Facebook’s move away from social networking has been driven by CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg, and included a name change, with Facebook now being known as “Meta.” According to the New York Times, Facebook’s shift of focus has caused a massive shakeup across the company.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies via video conference (Photo by GRAEME JENNINGS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Mark Zuckerberg stumped by question (AFP/Getty)

Via the New York Times:

It has created thousands of new jobs in the labs that make hardware and software for the metaverse. Managers have urged employees who worked on social networking products to apply for those augmented reality and virtual reality roles. The company has poached metaverse engineers from rivals including Microsoft and Apple. And it has officially rebranded some products, like its Oculus virtual-reality headsets, with the Meta name.

The result has been internal disruption, according to nine current and former Meta employees who were not authorized to speak publicly. While some workers were excited about Meta’s pivot, others questioned whether the company was hurtling into a new product without fixing issues such as misinformation and extremism on its social platforms. Workers were expected to adopt a positive attitude toward innovation or leave, one employee said, and some who disagreed with the new mission have departed.

Internal recruitment for the metaverse ramped up late last year, three Meta engineers said, with their managers mentioning job openings on metaverse-related teams in December and January. Others who didn’t get on board with the new mission left. One former employee said he resigned after feeling like his work on Instagram would no longer be of value to the company; another said they did not think Meta was best placed for creating the metaverse and was searching for a job at a competitor

The “metaverse” refers to an interconnected web of virtual worlds. In addition to Facebook, Microsoft is reportedly moving into this area as well.

Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.