Editorial: Mega challenges of metaverse

As the world gears up for the next era of social media evolution — metaverse — an immersive experience that seeks to blur the line between the virtual and physical worlds, there are huge concerns over privacy and data harvesting. The reason why scepticism has overshadowed excitement over the possibilities of this fascinating technology is […]

As the world gears up for the next era of social media evolution — metaverse — an immersive experience that seeks to blur the line between the virtual and physical worlds, there are huge concerns over privacy and data harvesting. The reason why scepticism has overshadowed excitement over the possibilities of this fascinating technology is because the idea has come from Facebook, the embattled social media giant whose business practices have come under a cloud. When Mark Zuckerberg unveiled his vision of metaverse, while rebranding his company as Meta, questions were raised over whether the grandiose exercise was an attempt to deflect the world’s attention from the mess that his firm has created. The main charge is that the social media giant prioritises profits over public safety and privacy and prefers user growth over online safety. The company has been facing considerable heat from countries that feel it does not do enough to weed out misinformation, but instead allows such opinions to grow on the platform. Its algorithms and systems are said to amplify online hate and extremism, and fail to protect young people from harmful content. The European Union is drafting new digital rules for the 27-nation bloc that call for reining in big “digital gatekeepers,” requiring them to be more transparent about their algorithms that determine what people see on their feeds and making them more accountable for content on their platforms. For a company steeped in regulatory problems because of the way its apps are used for fractious political debate, the idea has fueled suspicions regarding data harvesting and invasion of privacy.

Once metaverse, seen as social media 2.0, gains currency, it would pose a major challenge to the regulators. It would raise questions, both familiar and strange, about how the virtual space is governed, how its contents are moderated, and what its penetration would do to our shared sense of reality. Even with the current two-dimensional version of social platforms, nations are struggling to figure out an effective regulatory mechanism. Handling the social implications of the 3D version of immersive connectivity could be exponentially harder. While Zuckerberg may well be genuinely enthusiastic about building a virtual world for its own sake, he heads a company that makes nearly all of its money from targeted personalised advertisements. A user plugged into the Facebook metaverse will have an even greater range of personal information collected at all times. It is quite reasonable to suspect that Facebook sees this as the next frontier of data harvesting. There is no denying that what metaverse promises to offer is the stuff that appears straight out of a sci-fi world: a seamless, doppelganger universe where people can meet, work and play, using virtual reality headsets, augmented reality glasses, smartphone apps or other devices. It is the next best thing to teleportation.

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