- A nonprofit advocacy group says the researcher’s avatar was raped in the metaverse.
- Other Meta users also said they were sexually harassed or abused on the metaverse.
- Meta investors wanted a report on the damage the metaverse users face, but shareholders rejected the idea.
The researcher entered the metaverse, wanting to study the behavior of users on Meta’s social networking platform Horizon World. But within an hour of wearing Oculus virtual reality (VR) headphones, she says she was raped in virtual space.
“Metaverse: Another Toxic Septic Tank,” a new report released by the nonprofit advocacy group SumOfUs on May 24, describes a violent encounter between researchers in Meta’s Horizon world.
According to SumOfUs’ account, users invited the researcher to a private party at Horizon World earlier this month. Users in the same room then asked her to disable a setting that prevents others from approaching her four feet away,
A report linked to a video the group said showed what happened to the researcher’s avatar from her perspective. The video shows a male avatar approaching her, while another male avatar stands nearby and watches. A bottle of what appears to be alcohol is then transferred between the two avatars, according to a 28-second video. Two male voices are heard in the recording giving obscene comments.
In the part of the video that SumOfUs decided not to share, but describes, the researcher was “taken to a private room at a party where she was raped by a user who kept telling her to turn around so he could do it from behind, while users he could see the window outside - as long as another user in the room was watching and carrying a bottle of vodka, “the report said.
Although it happened in virtual reality, the incident left the researcher “disoriented”, she said in the report. The researcher noticed that her controller vibrated when the male avatars touched her, which resulted in a physical feeling that was the result of what she was experiencing online.
“One part of my brain was as if it was happening, another part as if this was not a real body, and another part as if this was important research,” she said in the report.
SumOfU researchers also reported experiencing homophobic and racial insults at Horizon World and said they had witnessed gun violence on the platform.
Meta launched Horizon Worlds last December for users aged 18 and over in the United States and Canada. By February, there were at least 300,000 users on the platform, according to The Verge.
Four other users also recently claimed that their avatars were sexually assaulted or harassed on Horizon World and other Meta VR platforms, according to a SumOfUs report.
In November, a beta tester reported that her avatar had been palpated on Horizon Worlds.
At the time, Meta spokeswoman Christina Milian told MIT Technology Review that users should have a positive experience with security tools that are easy to find — and it’s never a user’s fault if they don’t use all the features we offer. We will continue to improve our user interface and better understand how people use our tools so that users can report things easily and reliably. Our goal is to make Horizon Worlds safe, and we are committed to working. “
But the following month, metaverse researcher Nina Jane Patem revealed in a post on Medium that within 60 seconds of her joining Horizon Worlds, her avatar had gang-raped three to four male-looking avatars.
That same month, The New York Times reported that one player’s avatar was tangible in a shooting game owned by Matt. Separately, a player in the sports game Echo VR said that the player told her that he recorded her voice so that he could “jerk off” to her swearing.
SumOfUs and Meta did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment. In response to a SumOfUs report, a spokesman for Meta told the Daily Mail that he did not recommend “turning off the security function to people you don’t know.”
At least two major metaversion investors have expressed concern over new details of harassment and abuse on its metaverse platforms
Metaverse
Thinkhubstudio
Meta has put her future on building her impressive meta-universe virtual reality. He invested $ 10 billion in designing the metaverse. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is playing a long game with his investment, he recently said that the project could continue to lose money in the next three to five years, Insider reported.
However, at least two major Meta investors have been troubled by new details of harassment and abuse on its metaverse platforms.
In December, investors Arjuna Capital and Storebrand Asset Management, along with SumOfUs and several other advocacy organizations, jointly requested that Meta publish a report examining the potential damage users could face on their metaverse platforms, they said. in print. edition.
“Investors need to understand the extent of these potential damages and consider whether this is a good idea or not before throwing good money at bad,” Arjuna Capital executive partner Natasha Lamb said in a statement.
At the Meta shareholders’ meeting on May 25, a proposal was presented to complete a third party assessment of “potential psychological and civil and human rights for users that may be caused by the use and abuse of the platform” and “whether damage can be mitigated or avoided or the inevitable risks inherent in technology. “
However, the proposal was rejected.
Earlier this month, Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Meta Platforms, said in a blog post that the rules and security characteristics of the metaverse - regardless of the floor - will not be identical to those currently in force for social media. Nor should they be. “
But, he continued, “In the physical world, as well as on the Internet, people shout and swear and do all kinds of unpleasant things that are not prohibited by law, and harass and attack people in the ways they are.” Metavers will be different. People who want to misuse technology will always find ways to do it. “