Whistleblower Frances Haugen says Facebook's investment in the 'metaverse' shows how its priorities are all wrong

• Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen says she's "shocked" by the scale of Facebook's "metaverse" plans.
• Facebook recently said it would hire 10,000 people to build the metaverse.

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen told UK lawmakers on Monday she's "shocked" that the company is pouring so much money into the so-called "metaverse."

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told The Verge in July that he wanted Facebook to become a "metaverse company." The word metaverse is borrowed from science-fiction, and refers to a future version of the internet which people access using virtual-reality and augmented-reality headsets, rather than via laptops and phones.

"I was shocked to hear recently that Facebook wants to double down on the metaverse and that they're going to hire 10,000 engineers in Europe to work on the metaverse," Haugen said.

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"Because I was like, 'wow, do you know what we could have done with safety if we'd had 10,000 more engineers?' it would have been amazing," Haugen told a UK parliamentary select committee on Monday.

Haugen previously worked on Facebook's civic integrity team, and has said before that she believes the company consistently puts growth before the safety of its users.

"I think there is a view inside the company that safety is a cost, a cost center. It's not a growth center, which I think is very short-term in thinking because Facebook's own research has shown that when people have worse integrity experiences on the site, they're less likely to retain," she told the committee on Monday.

Previously, in response to allegations from Haugen and fellow whistleblower Sophie Zhang that it puts profits over user safety, Facebook told Insider it had invested $13 billion since 2016 in safety and security.

Haugen said Monday that "it doesn't matter if Facebook is spending $14 billion in safety a year, if they should be spending $25 billion or $35 billion, that's the real question."

When contacted by Insider, a Facebook spokesperson pointed to a recent op-ed by Facebook's Head of Global Policy Management Monika Bickert, in which Bickert also cited Facebook's $13 billion investment in safety.

Facebook has previously accused Haugen of mischaracterizing the company, and Zuckerberg has said some of her previous claims were "nonsensical."

Facebook said during its earnings call on Monday it expected its Reality Labs unit, which is focused on metaverse tech, to cost the company roughly $10 billion this year.

Facebook is also expected to announce a rebrand this week focusing on its metaverse ambitions.