Facebook revives money-making feature two years after closure users say is a real 'slap in the face'
Social media continues to battle complaints as it embraces artificial intelligence, and at the center of it is Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg's Meta has grown into a mighty oak tree from the tiny acorn of his original 'Facemash' build in 2003.
As one of the world's richest men, Mark Zuckerberg is at the head of Meta as an umbrella over Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Still, as things evolve, Facebook has leaned heavily into artificial intelligence.
Zuckerberg has already found himself in the firing line when he admitted jobs would be lost to AI, as well as the introduction of AI chatbots, and a mass of layoffs.
Some former employees have claimed working for Facebook was like working for one of the 'cruelest' companies ever, and with the return of an axed feature, there's more backlash.
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Just two years after Facebook axed its job board feature, it's back with Facebook Marketplace.
The Verge reports that the revamped job board is focused on "local entry-level job opportunities." It looks like the kind of odd jobs you might find on TaskRabbit, although some jobs are banned. Alongside childcare, adult services, and jobs related to drugs aren’t allowed on the job board.
Jobs were introduced in 2017 and rolled out to over 40 countries in 2018. This was scaled back to just the USA and Canada in 2022, before being quietly retired in 2023. People were still allowed to post listings as ads, which wasn't exactly a smart idea because organizations started advertising for positions while excluding specific genders or religious groups from seeing them.
This new job board is only available to those over the age of 18, in the USA, and can be found in the Marketplace section. Still, Meta says they might start appearing in some relevant groups.
There's a discrimination policy to stop people from being excluded this time around.
Cheering the overhauled feature, Meta says: "Finding a job should be easy and accessible. Whether you’re looking for your first real job or a part-time gig, Facebook’s new job tool helps you find and apply for the kind of work you want."
It comes at a time when the general public is scared of an AI takeover and jobs being put at risk.
The situation didn't go down well on Reddit, with one angry person writing: "An absolute slap in the face. It really is a class issue. Rich assholes have no idea."
Another added: "Cool, I'm still never recreating any accounts I had with Meta. F**kerberg can eat an entire bag of d*cks."
A third spoke out against the idea that AI is taking jobs and concluded: "No, it's not. A**hole CEO's are propping up their bottom lines by cutting labor costs and blaming it on 'AI'."
Notably, many have accused Meta of using the data collected to try and train its AI models. While helping people find a job should be a good thing, it seems Facebook is battling another controversy.