Facebook’s corporate transgressions have been hard to ignore for years. Whether you believe it actively participated in historically massive misinformation, disinformation, and popularization campaign or was just a well-paid enabler that was all too willing to look the other way as bad things happened, the social media giant has been investigated, sued, and found guilty, at least in the court of public opinion. Despite Facebook’s promise to “bring the world closer,” my own friend and family lists have been shattered by the insanity Facebook’s algorithms and business practices unleashed.
On the other hand, there’s Oculus. Facebook acquired Oculus when its first product, the Rift VR Headset, was still under development, and it gave the startup access to cash, engineering, and manufacturing scale that unquestionably improved its prospects. Yes, some of that cash indirectly funded one Oculus founder jail campaign during the 2016 election season, provoking public outcry, but the overwhelming majority of Facebook’s money went directly into creating breakthrough mixed reality products.
To be clear, we think Mark Zuckerberg’s investment in Oculus was brilliant, and as I (and others) have said before, neither Oculus nor the VR industry would be what they are today without him. I’ll go further and note that I personally like (and respect the professionalism of) the Oculus representatives I’ve met and worked with over the years. Whether it’s called Oculus or Facebook Reality Labs, the company is home to some exceptionally smart people who are doing work that is benefiting humanity. There may be no better place today for them to do that work.
Oculus
Regardless of whatever assurances were made before or during the acquisition, the likelihood that Oculus would remain fully independent was low, and every year, the Oculus brand falls more under Facebook’s shadow. Recent moves — including renaming Oculus connect Facebook connect — strongly suggest that the Oculus brand won’t be around 10 years from now. If the word “Facebook” wasn’t so controversial right now, Oculus Quest 2 might well have shipped under an entirely different name this year.
Assuming you believe that Facebook is a good actor. That makes big mistakes rather than a bad actor that gets away with as much as it can. That debate is still raging. The company’s biggest failure would be its inability to read a room and properly course-correct after screwing something up. Sixteen years after its founding, Facebook still acts like a kid. Who knocks over a giant aquarium, puts one fish in a bowl. And asks, “We good?” After doing serious harm, it rarely apologizes, admits the scope of its failings, or does anywhere near enough to make up for the damage. Motto change aside, it still moves fast and breaks things, then shrugs off the consequences without any actual remorse.
Instead of accepting that its brand has become toxic, Facebook. In another of its questionable room-reading moves — has tried to change public perception by becoming even bolder. If you’d forgotten who owns Oculus, Instagram, or WhatsApp, guess what: The apps now launch with the words “From Facebook”. To remind you that Facebook isn’t just a troubled social network. And instead of shrinking from the public spotlight, Zuckerberg personally shows up at Congressional hearings. And opens events such as Facebook Connect, proudly introducing everything of importance himself. His message is essentially to accept Facebook, warts and all, because it does more good than harm.
Having watched Facebook turn former friends into militantly polarized antagonists, I’m troubled by the idea of taking. The good with the bad here, because the good is great and the bad is awful. My brain keeps coming back to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s dystopian sci-fi movie. The Running Man, where the omnipresent TV network ICS had a theme song titled. “We bring you joy, we bring you strife.”
Unfortunately, Facebook offset all of Quest 2’s positives with a new requirement: If you want to use the headset. You’ll need a Facebook account. The controversial news that Oculus accounts are going away hit one month ago, along with the not-so-subtle detail that. Facebook accounts will be required to use all new Oculus products going forward. That means whatever barrier might have existed between Oculus users and Facebook’s massive, dangerous data-crunching operation will be gone. Which is especially problematic given that mixed reality devices. Which can will gather the most personal information data it can from computer users.
People freaked out last month when the Facebook account requirement was announced, and they haven’t calmed down much since then. Yesterday alone, our friends at UploadVR said. That requiring a Facebook account was a headline worthy caveat to an otherwise positive assessment of Quest 2. While other publications were even more vocally troubled by its “Facebookening.” And this isn’t just media-generated angst; discussion forums and Twitter quickly lit up with similar concerns. Which I’d call largely if not wholly justified given Facebook’s track record.