In collaboration with the IEEE Standards Association, the Council of Europe has extensive report assessing the Metaverse’s potential impacts on human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The report takes a deep dive into the virtual opportunities and risks presented by the highly immersive technologies shaping this new frontier, and highlights the importance of taking regulatory action to protect and preserve the fundamental virtual freedoms of our global citizens.
The Metaverse – an immersive, persistent and interoperable digital environment – offers opportunities for significant progress across many sectors, including entertainment, education, healthcare and commerce. However, some experts fear that the Metaverse could bring this with it major privacy risks. The report analyzes the potential pros and cons of the coming technology revolution and warns that user data could be at risk in immersive spaces.
One of the biggest concerns concerns the enormous amounts of data that can be collected. The Metaverse relies on technologies such as augmented and virtual reality, which collect vast amounts of personal information through wearable devices and other sensors.
These technologies have the potential to collect not only the usual types of data, such as demographic information, but also biometric data, such as the movements of our eyes, the expressions on our faces and the gestures of our bodies. AR and VR can use this data to make the immersion feel seamless; but in the realm of ‘what could go wrong’ there is so much more potential for privacy invasion and even identity theft than with most other digital experiences.
The report recommends strong privacy frameworks to protect users, and advocates for both privacy-preserving technologies and transparent data practices. It pushes for clear user consent and more user control among companies operating in the Metaverse.
Web3: a decentralized future?
The next version of the Internet – Web3 – will have its own consequences for the Metaverse and for the people who use it, according to the report. Unlike today’s Internet, which is dominated by a few large platforms, Web3 will be built on decentralized blockchain technologies, which could lead to greater ability for users to control their data and digital assets.
Unlike the Web 2.0 platforms that centralized technology companies control, Web 3.0 envisions a more democratic digital ecosystem in which users have both ownership and governance over the platforms they are on. However, this decentralization brings with it a big question mark about governance. Who ensures that our platforms work effectively, efficiently and fairly?
Overseeing decentralized platforms is not an easy task. And while these platforms may seem naturally suited to operating in an unregulated space, it is important to understand that they can become lawless just as easily as any other unregulated space. The Council of Europe recommends that the existing legal frameworks be adapted to the new decentralized circumstances.
Risks to democracy and freedom of expression
The Council of Europe’s Metaverse report looks at how the Metaverse could fundamentally change the way people communicate and interact socially, but it is also a potential threat to freedom of expression and democracy. The Metaverse’s distraction-free environments can be used to good effect, allowing users to have virtual town halls and even virtual elections. However, those same environments can also be used as a blank canvas to determine what is seen and heard.
The important issue of content moderation often causes platforms to turn to algorithms for help. However, the report points out that these algorithms “may lack the nuance to distinguish between legitimate speech and harmful content.” Additionally, in the Metaverse, users may get stuck in “filter bubbles”, where they are only shown content that aligns with their pre-existing beliefs and opinions. This is not just a phenomenon of the virtual world, but a feature of our current information ecosystem.
The Council of Europe emphasizes the importance of content moderation in protecting not only the right to expression, but also the principles of democracy and good governance. Any content moderation policy must not only achieve these goals, but also be transparent and enable user appeal. Our increasing immersion in digital environments makes this a vital and urgent issue, especially in terms of how persuasive and undetectable false narratives can be.
Protection of children’s rights
The Metaverse is a particularly vulnerable space for children. The recent report raises significant concerns about the inability of current systems to implement meaningful age checks and about children’s exposure to areas that could be dangerous.
The European Council demands stricter rules for age-appropriate design and robust age verification systems. It wants the platforms our children use to converge towards a meaningful level of safety. It also wants us to converge on an acceptable level of understanding of the augmented and mixed reality that our children will experience.
Governance and the rule of law
Ensure correct governance of the Metaverse is not an easy task. It is a virtual world that operates beyond the boundaries of the real world and raises fundamental questions about jurisdiction, enforcement and liability. These are age-old virtuality problems that our recent online tools have not solved. Traditional legal frameworks are likely ill-suited for decentralized and borderless virtual environments – especially when it comes to addressing the real crimes that take place in these virtual worlds.
The report emphasizes the need for global teamwork in shaping the new legal structures that will govern the Metaverse. The virtual world is simply too big for one country to regulate alone. As the Metaverse continues to expand, it will require not only the investments of governments and technology companies, but also the collective input of people around the world. In recent months the Council of Europe has been very active in this effort, and its latest report is a nice overview of the current state of play and its recommendations for moving forward.
Final thoughts
The Council of Europe emphasizes the urgent need for timely governance and regulation of the Metaverse and Web3 technologies. Because these still-emerging technologies offer great prospects for innovation and social engagement, they also have the potential to create renewed and serious threats to privacy and identity, not to mention a whole new frontier for content moderation and curation, leaving the current debates will seem strange. for comparison.
Editor’s Note: Written with the help of AI – Edited and fact-checked by Jason Newey.
