The metaverse is not unanimous among users and is already at the heart of a scandal following a charge of sexual assault.
Barely a few weeks after the launch of a first version in the United States and Canada, Facebook’s metaverse is already at the heart of a controversy. This virtual reality, created and imagined from scratch by Mark Zuckerberg, is far from being a safe place, especially for women. The setbacks of the real world are unfortunately also found in the metaverse. In this virtual world, anything is possible, just like sexual harassment. A user was also a victim. As noted The verge, at the beginning of the month of December, a betatesteuse explained to have been the victim of a sexual assault in virtual reality.
This first tester delivered a chilling testimony about her first experience in the Metaverse on the project’s official Facebook page. “Sexual harassment is already something serious online, but being in virtual reality adds intensity to this type of event“, she lamented, claiming that her avatar had been touched. She was”groped“and other male avatars have”supported this behavior“. Finally, in this virtual reality which aims to bring people together, she felt”isolated“.
A universe far from benevolent
Unfortunately, she is not the only one to have had this type of experience. Journalist Parmy Olson described a world far from idyllic in a December 15 article on Bloomberg. By choosing an avatar that looked like him, a host of male users spied on him and surrounded him, making the situation very “uncomfortable“. In her paper, she still described a moment”amusing“,”exciting“, but also “intense, tiring and often bothersome“. On her Twitter account, she went even further in the confidences.”The harassment and scary behavior has happened often enough that I think the harassment and griefing issues that have been around in games for years are coming to social virtual reality.“, she lamented, before concluding bitterly:”Going into the metaverse as a woman was also deeply uncomfortable at times. “
To defend himself, Vivek Sharma, the vice-president of Horizon Worlds, admitted to The verge that it was a “absolutely unfortunate accident“, but somehow put the fault on the user by signaling that she had not activated the protection mode created by Meta, which allows to activate a safe zone around her avatar. Unfortunately, these returns from The experience does not match the description of Mark Zuckerberg Connect 2021 which promised a benevolent virtual and social world.