Facebook says it's hiring 10,000 people in Europe to help build Mark Zuckerberg's 'metaverse'

• Facebook said it would create 10,000 jobs in Europe over five years to make a "metaverse."
• The metaverse is a theoretical virtual space where people can access the internet.

Facebook plans to create 10,000 jobs across the European Union (EU) over the next five years in pursuit of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's vision of a "metaverse," the company announced in a press release Monday.

Zuckerberg first told The Verge in July that he wants Facebook to eventually become a "metaverse company." The word metaverse refers to a theoretical virtual space where people can access the internet, for example using virtual-reality or augmented-reality headsets.

The first concrete example of a Facebook metaverse product is Horizon Workrooms, a VR workspace for team meetings launched in August.

Facebook said the jobs it creates in the EU would be highly skilled, including specialized engineers roles. "This investment is a vote of confidence in the strength of the European tech industry and the potential of European tech talent," Facebook said in a statement shared with Insider.

A Facebook spokesperson told Insider the company's recruiters would target countries including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands, and Ireland.

The announcement came the same day whistleblower Sophie Zhang, a former Facebook data scientist who went public with her criticisms of the company in April, was due to give testimony to a UK parliamentary committee.

Another whistleblower, Frances Haugen, is due to give testimony to the committee next week.