Meta puts an end to the department in charge of the societal impact of its products

Some will no doubt see it as a form of cynicism: Meta has just closed its Responsible Innovation department, a department which since last year has been in charge of analyzing the societal impact of the American giant’s various products and services. Composed in part of engineers but above all of profiles versed in civil rights, legal or ethical issues, the service did not seem to be really active since the departure of its director, Zvika Kriegerearlier in the year.

Service employees would have joined other understaffed Meta divisions, like the Reality Labs (VR/XR headsets, mixed reality services, Metaverse Horizon Worlds) or the AI ​​division (already equipped with a “social responsibility” division). In view of the numerous criticisms received by the concept of Metaverse advocated by Zuckerberg (a true parallel world 2.0), a pinch of ethical analysis will probably not be too much… As a reminder, Meta has greatly reduced its volume of hiring on these months, which probably explains this game of musical chairs internally.