Facebook Rushes Towards Internet TV Ambitions Even As People Die Around It

Following news about the job listing for a movie producer that it posted, rumors have begun circulating involving Facebook’s original video content ambitions. Supposedly, the social media company will be launching original programming in June, with A-list celebrities in the mix. The company is currently running headlong into a potentially profitable new feature even as people are dying on the platform.

It’s no secret that Mark Zuckerberg is on the war path and is trying to take over every industry and market that he can. In the case of digital entertainment, the rampaging billionaire is trying to create a platform that mimics what Netflix or Amazon is already doing, Tech Times reports. Supposedly, Facebook is already working on 24 shows that it will be releasing or announcing by June.

As for why the company would even do this, the answer has a lot to do with the billions that TV networks get from advertisers. Sure, Facebook is already getting a pretty huge chunk of the ad revenue pie online, but it’s nowhere near what Google is raking in. If it can channel the influence that TV programs have on advertising enthusiasm, it’s only natural that Zuckerberg would want a piece of the action.

Now, as to what kind of original programs users can expect, one of the core options that is supposedly already finished has to do with virtual reality dating. This is basically like Tinder, but with a more VR-centric premise where prospects meet each other in the virtual world before hooking up in the real one.

A-list celebrities have also reportedly signed on to star or at least, appear on some of the shows that Facebook is working on. Concrete details with regards to the nature of the program are still nonexistent.

Even as Facebook marches on towards progress, however, many are questioning if it should stop, given that it still hasn’t addressed some of the serious issues it is involved in. As Quartz points out, Facebook Live has given birth to over 50 incidents of horrible contents that were streamed live, which includes a father killing his infant daughter and an elderly man getting shot.

So far, Facebook’s responses to these issues, including hiring an additional 3,000 screeners have been considered unsatisfactory. Yet, instead of pouring all of its attention on fixing a problem that is literally a matter of life and death, the social network has so far deflected blame and adopted methods that are the equivalent of burying its head in the sand.