Summary: Facebook has announced that it intends to hire 10,000 people in the European Union to focus on building a “metaverse"—a term often used to describe a virtual space in which users are able to connect and engage with all other types of content (movies, games, social networks, etc).
Context: The dream of the metaverse has been a driving force behind many tech companies’ efforts, because whomever is able to build it first (or build the most popular one) could make themselves the connective tissue between all other types of content in the future; that said, some analysts suspect this sudden refocusing on a bigger-picture, neat-sounding ambition could be part of Facebook’s PR strategy to distract from their ongoing legal and reputational woes, which have only gotten worse these past few months.
—BBC News