Facebook’s metaverse plans have been dubbed “dystopian” and “a bad idea.”

Facebook’s Meta, as it’s now known, is putting billions into the project.

“It’s a poor concept,” Roger McNamee told the BBC, “and the fact that we’re all sitting here looking at it like it’s normal should be scaring everyone.”

At the Web Summit in Lisbon, Meta’s chief product officer Chris Cox said the notion would make “the internet less flat.”

As a conference place, he believes it would be far superior to video conferencing.

Mr. McNamee, on the other hand, expressed his skepticism at the same gathering.

He stated that “Facebook should not be permitted to construct a dystopian metaverse.”

In the 1990s, the term “metaverse” was coined in the science fiction novel Snow Crash, where it was used to describe a virtual reality successor to the internet.

As he saw more falsehoods on the platform, Mr McNamee became a Facebook critic. He expressed his doubts that the metaverse would be safe in the hands of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

“No way should a regulator or policymaker allow Facebook to operate there [in the metaverse] or get into cryptocurrencies,” he stated.

“Facebook should have been stripped of its ability to make its own decisions. Every action they do should be pre-approved by a regulator. The amount of damage they’ve caused is unquantifiable.”

Real life

Mr. Cox, speaking on behalf of Meta, took a different approach, claiming that the metaverse concept is the next stage for the internet as a whole, not just for his organization.

“Technology frequently begins as lower-resolution versions of what it eventually becomes,” he explained.

Users of Meta’s Oculus virtual reality gear said the technology was “very enjoyable” and that it was improving all the time.

Mr. Cox told Nicholas Carlson, editor-in-chief of the news site Insider, that his personal forays into the metaverse included organizing meetings and providing entertainment for his employees.

“Twenty of us in the room, co-workers, all laughing together,” he added, adding that he and his wife had seen a comedy event with Facebook employees in which everyone appeared as avatars.

He suggested that the same technology was a good alternative to video calls.

“Video conferencing has left everyone weary. Everyone is continuously interrupting one other, so you don’t know who is staring at who.”

Meetings in the metaverse would be lot better, he claimed, with Meta working on ways to improve virtual reality’s “spatial audio and body language.”

“It will not replace real life – nothing should – and I don’t want to develop something that does,” he stated when asked why anyone would want to meet in virtual reality.

Getting Meta

He admitted that no single firm, such as Meta, would be able to claim ownership over the metaverse, using Roblox as an example.

Roblox, a $30 billion (£22 billion) user-generated gaming platform with 37 million members worldwide, has its own metaverse ideas.

For numerous years, CEO David Baszucki has outlined his vision for it as a digital location where people may play, work, or learn with millions of 3D activities.

Jon Vlassopulos, Roblox’s head of music, told the BBC at Web Summit: “I believe we have been working on the metaverse for approximately 15 years.

“So we’re ushering in the metaverse, and we believe it should be a place where everybody can go and express themselves and connect with others.

“For a long time, we’ve been constructing around this goal. We’re ecstatic that more individuals are showing up to support that theory.”

Mr. Carlson described the metaverse as a “cartoon universe,” and Mr. Cox was questioned if the tech giant should have authority over it.

He stated that “a set of norms and protocols” will be required, as well as “public dialogue” on how to maintain the place secure.

Mr Zuckerberg, he continued, was committed to safety, something the “business has been working on for over a decade.”