Just stepped into Facebook’s metaverse, a woman’s avatar was “collectively raped”

In a post on Medium, a British woman told about a horrifying experience she had when she just stepped into the metaverse virtual universe in the Horizon Worlds game developed by Facebook (or now Meta).

” Within 60 seconds of joining this world, I was subjected to verbal and sexual harassment – ​​3 or 4 male avatars with male voices nearly gang-raped my avatar .” ” When I tried to run away, they yelled, ‘Don’t pretend you don’t like it,’ ” said Nina Jane Patel, a 43-year-old mother in London.

” It’s so weird .” Patel said. ” It really is a nightmare .” Patel is currently vice president of Metaverse research for Kabuni Ventures, a virtual reality technology company.

Horizon Worlds was released by Meta in early December to everyone 18 years of age and older in the US and Canada. This game has thousands of virtual worlds built by the creators and is free to download for everyone, but Meta plans to make money from selling ads and launching an e-commerce platform – the same way such as through the social networks Facebook and Instagram.

While not widespread, reports of similar sexual violence suggest it has become a problem in the metaverse. In early December, The Verge reported that a beta tester had also had his avatar harassed by others.

” Sexual harassment is no ordinary internet joke, VR adds another layer of interaction that makes it all the more serious .” This tester said. ” Not only was I harassed last night, but there were other people there who supported this behavior, making me feel isolated in the Plaza .”

In response, Horizon VP of Meta, Vivek Sharma deeply regrets this and that the incident was “completely unfortunate”, and that the tester did not use the beta’s safety feature, which helps block strangers interact with you. Sharma also thanked the tester’s report for “good feedback” on the product.

The same thing happened with Patel when she said she didn’t use the safety feature because the experience happened so quickly. Therefore, after her post, many people told her that female avatars should not be chosen when they want to explore this virtual world.

However, Arwa Mahdawi, columnist for The Guardian newspaper, said the response was nothing more than “blaming the victim”.

” It’s like telling women that if they don’t want to be harassed on the street, they should stay at home, ” Mahdawi said. ” That’s the classic way of blaming used in the digital age .”

Last year, Facebook’s parent company changed its name to Meta – an effort to show support for building future digital universes. In that world, in theory, people’s digital avatars in virtual reality could do just about anything in the real world – from commuting to work, traveling, chatting, entertaining or go shopping.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is optimistic about this metaverse, arguing that it could replace the internet we use in the future.

Refer to Vice