A woman named Nina Jane Patel (43) brought out a dreadful incident that she encountered in the first minute of her Metaverse journey. The woman alleged that she was virtually gang-raped by 3-4 Male Avatars just 60 seconds after she joined the Metaverse. Nina narrated the entire incident in a Medium Blog Post.
“Within 60 seconds of joining, I was verbally and sexually harassed by 3-4 male avatars, with male voices, who essentially, but virtually, gang-raped my avatar and took photos,” she said. She also described that the male avatars photographed her and gave her messages like “don’t pretend you didn’t love it”. This has raised questions on the Metaverse technology that is taking over the world step by step. What is a Metaverse actually?
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Facebook recently changed its name to ‘Meta’ and ‘Metaverse’ is a huge reason behind the renaming. Metaverse is made up of two terms, ‘Meta’ and ‘Verse’. Meta means ‘Beyond’ and ‘Verse’ is a shorter form of ‘Universe’. So ‘Beyond Universe’ implies that the Metaverse is a universe, a virtual one, beyond the universe that we live in. In simpler words, Metaverse is a virtual simulation that allows the user to virtually enter the world with a virtual avatar and interact with the universe. It doesn’t exist in the world we live in, but is a simulation that we can interact with virtually.
When Facebook took the word ‘Meta’ as its new name, Co-founder and CEO of Meta Mark Zuckerberg, revealed in a public interaction that building a metaverse was the major reason behind the shift. He wants the company to go beyond the universe. But this recent event of the alleged gang-rape of the 43-year Old has raised questions over thr technology in building.
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“We’re sorry to hear this happened. We want everyone in Horizon Venues to have a positive experience, and easily find the safety tools that can help in a situation like this–and help us investigate and take action, ” a Meta spokesperson said in response to the event.
The London-based woman works for Kabuni Ventures, an immersive technology firm, as vice president of Metaverse Research. Meta released ‘Horizon Worlds’ to everyone who’s 18 or older in the US & Canada. In Meta’s ‘Horizon Worlds’, users can take up virtual avatars and interact with users worldwide and a virtual world and it was during that when Nina went through the horrible experience. It even pushed her to a state of anxiety.
