Metaverse: How Facebook rebrand reflects a dangerous trend in growing power of tech monopolies

Facebook's rebranding arsenic Meta has been seen by galore arsenic the company's latest effort astatine corporate situation control. The societal media elephantine has been publically attacked for creating an situation that fosters far-right extremism and violating individuals' information privacy.

Yet it besides represents an effort to rebrand the increasing powerfulness of tech monopolies to signifier each areas of our lives done societal expansion. It points to a troubling caller epoch of "metacapitalism"—or "capitalism connected steroids" arsenic Forbes called it successful 2000. It reflects a disturbing inclination of massively expanding tech conglomerates and the unsafe privatization of technological knowledge.

Rebranding tech monopolies

Technology is rapidly transforming our world—from instantaneous integer connection to AI decision-making to virtual and augmented reality. The driving unit down these changes has been backstage technology firms, whether planetary start-ups oregon celebrated Silicon Valley conglomerates. But this operation of monolithic firm profits and breathtaking technological innovation is the biggest story of 21st-century progress.

The information is overmuch much complicated. Huge exertion firms specified arsenic Google and Facebook are progressively criticized for unethical information postulation and the usage of algorithms which promote hateful beliefs and viral misinformation.

Their exertion has besides encouraged unjust labour practices including hi-tech integer surveillance to monitor workers, arsenic happened successful Amazon warehouses, and facilitated digital platforms specified arsenic Uber, which refuse to supply basal idiosyncratic rights.

Longer term, the mining of uncommon world metals and the monolithic amounts of vigor required for data processing are large contributors to clime change.

These problems constituent to the menace of capitalist tech monopolies where, according to theorist Neil Postman, the civilization "seeks its authorisation successful technology, finds its satisfactions successful technology, and takes its orders from technology." Microsoft and Google person already been accused of monopolistic practices.

These "bit tyrants" are troubling "technopolies" which really usage their powerfulness and power to stifle innovation and competition using—ironically—traditional practices of the aged economy.

Perhaps adjacent much troubling is however these companies transmission innovation distant from its imaginable for societal good. Beneath the story of Silicon Valley prosperity are large tech's seeming attempts to promote firm oligarchies and adjacent authoritarian regimes to widen their economical scope and governmental power.

The highly publicized renaming of these conglomerates is portion of a wider rebranding of this technopoly. As 1 commentator precocious observed, "Facebook's caller sanction is "Meta," and its caller ngo is to invent a 'metaverse' that volition marque america each hide what it's done to our existing reality." It whitethorn beryllium a antithetic name, but it is the aforesaid economic, governmental and societal firm threat.

The dispersed of metacapitalism

In his video announcement, Facebook laminitis Mark Zuckerberg proclaimed this dawning of the metaverse arsenic signaling a caller technological age, providing viewers with a glimpse of it successful a virtual world wherever radical could usage avatars to unrecorded retired their wildest imaginativeness successful real-time with others astir the world.

The backlash has ranged from moral outrage implicit Facebook itself, to ridiculing Zuckerberg's caller imaginativeness for technology. What is overlooked is however this represents the tendency to make metacapitalism—which uses exertion to shape, exploit and nett from quality interaction. It is simply a wholly marketised virtual world satellite fuelled by the unsustainable exploitation of earthy resources, unjust planetary moving conditions and the changeless penetration of users' information privateness for backstage fiscal gain.

Corporate and societal rebranding are cardinal to the dispersed of metacapitalism. Google's 2015 name change to "Alphabet" reflected its tendency to beryllium much than conscionable a hunt motor and expand into different areas specified arsenic driverless cars, aesculapian devices, astute location appliances and drone delivery. Introducing the metaverse, Zuckerberg said: "Think astir however galore carnal things you person contiguous that could conscionable beryllium holograms successful the future. Your TV, your cleanable enactment set-up with aggregate monitors, your committee games and more—instead of carnal things assembled successful factories, they'll beryllium holograms designed by creators astir the world."

He insisted, erstwhile again, that "we don't physique services to marque money; we marque wealth to physique amended services."

These moves play into a broader strategy to socially rebrand metacapitalism positively. The instauration of the metaverse is portion of a caller inclination of what concern morals world Carl Rhodes has referred to it arsenic "woke capitalism," noting successful a caller article that "progressive gestures from large concern aren't conscionable useless—they're dangerous."

Whether it is the Gates Foundation initially opposing the dispersed of planetary vaccines successful bid to protect patent rights, oregon Elon Musk promising to make an "multi-planet civilisation"—while avoiding paying much-needed taxes present connected Earth—corporations are present progressively utilizing philanthropy and utopian visions to fell their contiguous time misdeeds.

A unit for good

The irony is that exertion could really go a existent force for extremist societal and economical translation if it was freed from the constrictive limits imposed connected it by metacapitalism.

Digital platforms are already enabling greater cooperative ownership and direct antiauthoritarian participation. Big information could beryllium deployed to let for efficient vigor use done amended tracking of vigor consumption. It besides allows for the assemblage ownership of our accusation and the system generally. 3D printers person the potential to revolutionize manufacturing truthful that we tin easy and sustainably nutrient each that we require.

Crucially, open-source technologies which let for their accusation to beryllium freely disposable to use, modify and redistribute, could foster planetary collaboration and innovation connected a standard antecedently unimaginable. They constituent to a realistic and utopian "post-capitalist" aboriginal that could transcend the request for exploitation based connected principles of shared improvement and corporate prosperity.

The rebranding of exertion companies is not simply cosmetic, it represents a unsafe effort to monopolize each forms of exertion improvement linked to a metaverse and the dispersed of metacapitalism. What is needed alternatively is simply a existent treatment astir fostering open-source culture, information rights and ownership, and the usage of exertion for affirmative societal transformation—not simply selling much products.

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This nonfiction is republished from The Conversation nether a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.