Day: January 15, 2026
Is Zuckerberg’s Metaverse ending? Meta decimates staff, sours on VR.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse may not be the next big thing after all.
It hasn’t been that long since the Metaverse was the place to be, with celebrities like Snoop Dogg saying he would start a new record label and social media giants the Nelk Boys promising fans exclusive experiences.
Several sources are reporting that Reality Labs, Meta’s division that works on virtual reality headsets, smart glasses, and wristbands, is dumping around 10% of its workforce.
‘About 80% of users are reportedly under the age of 16 years old.’
The New York Times reports this could amount to somewhere around 1,000-1,500 employees and “disproportionately” affect those who work on the Metaverse and virtual-reality-based social media networking. Bloomberg’s report echoed similar numbers and said Meta is cutting back on virtual reality investments. A Meta spokesperson told Return the Bloomberg report is accurate.
CEO Zuckerberg may no longer think his prized avatar world is the future. He reportedly wants money reallocated from VR goggles and the Metaverse toward his wearables division, to push smart glasses and wristband computing.
For example, Meta is famously partnered with Ray-Ban glasses for video recording and AI integration into the user’s point of view.
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It is difficult to gauge the active users in the Metaverse. In 2022, the internet was rife with stories of barren online wastelands such as Decentraland and Sandbox’s $1.3 billion disaster that was garnering fewer than 1,000 daily active users.
As Blaze News reported in December, Meta had recently revealed it spent $77 billion on its overall VR strategy that included Meta Quest hardware (headsets) and Meta Horizon, its Metaverse social platform.
“We said last month that we were shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward wearables,” a Meta spokesperson told Return. “This is part of that effort, and we plan to reinvest the savings to support the growth of wearables this year.”
Current estimates have the active user count for the Metaverse, overall, at somewhere between 400 and 600 million. About 80% of users are reportedly under the age of 16 years old, and half of all users are under 13.
Last year, the company said it had significant growth in sales for its VR headsets and increased payment volume on its platform by 12%. This came with a 10% overall increase in monthly time spent on its media apps, Meta’s VP of Metaverse content, Samantha Ryan, wrote in 2024.
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Still, Zuckerberg has made it clear that the company is shifting toward its wearable technology and AI, including what it takes to power it.
With plans to build new massive data centers, Zuckerberg has promised to deliver “personal superintelligence,” confirming in recent remarks that the company will continue to “invest in and finance Meta’s AI and infrastructure.”
The company says it will focus on experiences with mobile phones for the Metaverse, instead of VR headsets.
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‘We’re hot on their trail’: Trump zeros in on leakers after IT contractor allegedly spills Venezuela secrets to reporter
The Trump administration revealed that a government contractor leaked information about the military operation in Venezuela earlier this month.
‘There could be some others, and we’ll let you know about that. We’re hot on their trail.’
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the FBI searched the home of one of its reporters, claiming the raid was part of an investigation into Aurelio Perez-Lugones.
Perez-Lugones is a Maryland resident who was working as a systems engineer and information technology specialist for a government contracting company when federal authorities arrested him. He has maintained Top Secret security clearance since at least 2000, according to a January 9 affidavit.
Federal prosecutors accused Perez-Lugones of printing screenshots of a Top Secret report, as well as writing classified information on a notepad and taking the sheets of paper home. When authorities searched his home last week, they allegedly found multiple documents that were marked as Secret, including a document found in his lunch box.
The criminal complaint claimed the documents were related to “national defense.” However it did not specify any details, such as whether the information pertained to the United States’ recent operation in Venezuela.
FBI Director Kash Patel shared a statement on Wednesday about the recent arrest of the leaker and that individual’s ties to the Washington Post.
Photographer: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“This morning the @FBI and partners executed a search warrant of an individual at the Washington Post who was found to allegedly be obtaining and reporting classified, sensitive military information from a government contractor — endangering our warfighters and compromising America’s national security,” Patel wrote.
During an interview with Fox News, Attorney General Pam Bondi described the leaker as an IT contractor who had been working with the Department of War and allegedly leaked information related to “a foreign adversary.”
“The great men and women of the FBI executed a search warrant at the direction of Kash Patel and my office on the reporter’s home, seizing the devices that contained classified material regarding our foreign adversaries,” Bondi stated.
RELATED: Online sleuths spot numerous signs that a US strike on Iran is imminent
Attorney General Pam Bondi. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
President Donald Trump also addressed news about the alleged leak, describing the suspect as the “leaker on Venezuela.”
“A very bad leaker. So there could be some others, and we’ll let you know about that. We’re hot on their trail,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday, adding that the alleged leaker would “probably be in jail for a long time.”
Trump officials have confirmed that the suspected leaker is in custody.
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Minneapolis chaos escalates: Federal prison guards in riot gear block hateful mob after another ICE shooting
Tensions are rising rapidly in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after yet another ICE-involved shooting.
On Wednesday night, video footage from journalist Nick Sortor went viral, showing one of the latest developments in the conflict.
‘This federal response is growing every day. Send in the MARINES next!’
The video shows federal officers with identification indicating that they are from the Bureau of Prisons, a major development in the federal government’s efforts to control the situation. The prison guards are wearing riot gear and blockading a street to keep a rowdy crowd of rioters from the DHS agents behind them.
Other videos from the area appear to show rioters breaking into police vehicles and stealing police equipment. Some also reportedly threw rocks, ice, and incendiary devices at officers.
Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“This federal response is growing every day. Send in the MARINES next!” Sortor captioned the BOP video, in part.
Sortor attributed this development to Attorney General Pam Bondi. Blaze News has reached out to the DOJ for comment.
At the end, the video pans around to show a view of dozens of protesters near the line of guards.
One rioter can be heard shouting, “Why the f**k are you here?” and “What more do you f**king want?” before some in the crowd begin chanting, “They’re not qualified!” at the guards.
The video was posted just hours after an ICE agent was “ambushed by three individuals” and was forced to fire a defensive shot at an illegal Venezuelan alien during an attempted arrest, DHS claimed.
The alien suffered a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the leg and was taken to the hospital, as was the ICE officer.
Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act on Thursday morning given the rising tensions between law enforcement and the increasingly violent rioters.
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Judge won”t speed up Paramount lawsuit seeking Warner Bros merger details
A judge nixed Paramount Skydance’s bid to speed up its lawsuit demanding that Warner Bros explain why Netflix’s $82.7-billion takeover was better than its $108.7-billion hostile bid.
Death toll in Binaliw landfill trash slide rises to 26 amid search efforts
The death toll in the trash slide that hit the Binaliw Landfill in Cebu City has hit 26 after six more remains were recovered from the site.
