Earlier Parts of this series

Part 1, Why Now?

https://hadrianarcho.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-metaverse-primer-by-jefferies-part.html

Part 2, A Peculiar Economy

https://hadrianarcho.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-metaverse-primer-by-jefferies-part_15.html

Introduction

At the beginning of this discussion regarding the Metaverse, I had already begun to think about the effects that a fully developed metaverse would have on crime, punishment, and censorship. Because of my rather sluggish writing process, I was not able to complete this part of the discussion before a very important news article arrived onto the landscape this year. You may or may not have heard of this piece of news, but some time ago, a lady had reported that she has been “raped” in the metaverse [1]. In the story, a woman from the UK, Nina Jane Patel, claimed that within a minute of joining the metaverse platform, Horizon Venues, a group of 3-4 avatars had sexually assaulted her [1] [2]. In more explicit detail from her personal blog on Medium, Nina expunges more details about what exactly the users had done to her [3]:

“I was verbally and sexually harassed — 3–4 male avatars, with male voices, essentially, but virtually gang raped my avatar and took photos — as I tried to get away they yelled — “don’t pretend you didn’t love it” and “go rub yourself off to the photo”.

On first glance, it’s obvious that Ms. Patel clearly has not been on the internet for a very long time, nor has she ever spent time in the grittier portions of the internet like the comments sections on youtube videos, Pre-Reddit forum sites, or even Xbox/Playstation/PC shooting game lobbies. If she had, there is little doubt that what she experienced would be a mild at best, and something worth a cry at night and not much else. You want an example of what I mean, the video below is a representation of what us longtime internet users are used to:

Aside from Ms. Patel’s sensitivities, what she does bring up in her case is interesting in the perspective of what the Metaverse means for crime and punishment.

Real and Digital Selves

In her blog, Ms. Patel brings up the question about the blurring of virtual and digital life. She brings up the notions that people can’t often distinguish between real and virtual experience and how this is exploited by metaverse platforms in order to the generate a lifelike feel to the metaverse. In her experience, Ms. Patel claims that she had a physiological response that had happened as it was real [3]. She’s correct in that people have a hard time distinguishing between real and virtual versions of themselves. It’s been repeated in a few studies concerning both the digital self and the nature of parasocial relationships on various tech platforms [4]. In other research, it’s been shown that people like to internalize the traits of their avatars, even if it’s not the reflections of themselves in the real world [5]. So, if people have a problem differentiating between their virtual self and their digital self, than how is crime handled when it comes to these online events like a virtual gangbang? Traditionally, when it comes to online crime in the United States, there seems to be a differentiator in the application of the law depending on whether the crime at hand is “hard” or “soft.” For example, it’s rather rare that someone on the internet gets arrested for illegal distribution of content online. Millions of people in the US use torrenting software or use streaming site to watch content and the last big case of online piracy I can think of that went to court was the case of Aaron Schwartz since he was downloading large amounts of research papers onto his own drives to make them free [6]. On the other hand, more people get arrested online for hard crimes done online like drug trafficking, like in the case against the silk road, an underground internet operation that was used to sell drugs online [7]. In the case of sexual assault, this is currently classified as a soft crime since no hard law was applied to the case and no follow ups or arrests were made to the people that sexually assault Ms. Patel.

Jurisdiction

One of the things that interests me a lot is the idea of jurisdiction. As we’ve touched on above, there’s going to be a degradation between real and virtual selves in a metaverse world. Since the line is now blurred, who does get jurisdiction in the case of Ms. Patel? Is it the government of the country that she is in? In some countries, such as the UK or Australia, the authorities already take an extensive role in the policing of behavior on the internet [8] [9]. On the other hand, the US has not taken steps as extensive when it comes to online behavior, seldomly pursuing cases against internet tomfoolery [10]. In the US, the policing of online behavior falls on private companies, as they engage in censorship and content moderation to various levels. Therefore, with the merger of digital and real underway, if the authorities can’t engage in the pursuit of unwanted behavior online then we may be able to expect increases in their ability to moderate. My vision of what moderation looks like in the metaverse is the image of both moderators walking around the metaverse environments on patrol like many regular police officers do. However, at its worst, I see companies with metaverse platforms obtaining real life police units with the capability of jurisdiction over certain breaks of law or unwanted behavior. A haunting image in head of MPPD, or Meta Platforms Police Department that is able to not only punish people in the virtual world, but would get jurisdiction on certain crimes committed in the metaverse that the government would not want to handle. Think of it much like a blackwater but for the virtual space.

The truth of the matter is that I don’t really know if it’ll go as bad as I predict, but we never truly know what people are willing to do in the event that human behavior needs to be “controlled.”

References

[1] Woman recalls “gang rape” in metaverse; concerns grow over making VR platforms safe from sexual predators [Internet]. cnbctv18.com. 2022 [cited 2022 Mar 19]. Available from: https://www.cnbctv18.com/technology/woman-recalls-gang-rape-in-metaverse-concerns-grow-over-making-vr-platforms-safe-from-sexual-predators-12396992.htm.

[2] Archive VA, feed G author R. Meta adds ‘Personal Boundary’ to metaverse after ‘virtual gang rape’ [Internet]. New York Post. 2022 [cited 2022 Mar 19]. Available from: https://nypost.com/2022/02/04/meta-adds-personal-boundary-to-metaverse-after-virtual-gang-rape/.

[3] Reality or Fiction?. Sexual Harassment in VR, The Proteus… | by Nina Jane Patel | Kabuni | Medium [Internet]. [cited 2022 Mar 19]. Available from: https://medium.com/kabuni/fiction-vs-non-fiction-98aa0098f3b0.

[4] Chen C-P. Forming digital self and parasocial relationships on YouTube. Journal of Consumer Culture. 2016;16:232–254.

[5] Yee N, Bailenson JN, Ducheneaut N. The Proteus Effect: Implications of Transformed Digital Self-Representation on Online and Offline Behavior. Communication Research. 2009;36:285–312.

[6] Aaron Swartz [Internet]. [cited 2022 Mar 20]. Available from: https://fija.org/library-and-resources/library/law-and-legal-cases/aaron-swartz.html.

[7] United States of America v. Ross William Ulbicht [Internet]. Findlaw. [cited 2022 Mar 20]. Available from: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-2nd-circuit/1862572.html.

[8] Bowcott O, correspondent OBL affairs. UK lawyers uneasy about plan to prosecute hate speech at home. The Guardian [Internet]. 2020 Nov 4 [cited 2022 Mar 20]; Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/04/uk-lawyers-uneasy-about-plan-to-prosecute-hate-speech-at-home.

[9] Online hate speech [Internet]. eSafety Commissioner. [cited 2022 Mar 20]. Available from: https://www.esafety.gov.au/research/online-hate-speech.

[10] News ABC. Student’s arrest for racist post sparks free speech debate [Internet]. ABC News. [cited 2022 Mar 20]. Available from: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/students-arrest-racist-post-sparks-free-speech-debate-77776153.