The metaverse is a new place for the old problem of harassment – Arwa Mahdawi

Warning: this article contains several references to the metaverse, an extremely annoying trendy term that extremely annoying people love to sow here and there, usually in conjunction with “blockchain” and “ntf”. If you are more or less like me, reading the word “metaverse” may feel you are dying inside, so I want to prepare you. This article also contains many references to sexual harassment because, unsurprisingly, the metaverse has already become one of many places that are particularly hostile to women.

At the beginning of December Meta (the holding company that used to be called Facebook until October 2021, when Mark Zuckerberg changed its name in a big move in an attempt to distract people from the company’s PR problems) opened the company. Horizon worlds virtual reality platform to all people over 18 in the United States and Canada. Horizon worlds is Meta’s first big step towards building a new version of the internet known as the metaverse, where the physical and digital worlds meet. Your avatar can walk around with up to twenty other people with whom you can play, entertain and build bespoke digital environments. And also harass people. Last month a beta tester told Meta she was accidentally groped by a stranger on Horizon worlds. He then posted his experience as a member of the Horizon worlds beta test group on Facebook.

“Sexual harassment is no joke on the regular internet, but virtual reality adds another layer that makes the event even more intense,” he wrote. “Last night not only was I groped, but there were other people who supported this behavior …”.

And what was Meta’s response? A little casual blaming of the victim. After an internal review process he concluded that the beta tester should have used a tool called “Safe Zone” which users can activate if they feel threatened. The tool effectively relegates you to a protective bubble and prevents people from interacting with you until you step out of the bubble. It’s the digital equivalent of telling women that if they don’t want to be harassed while walking down the street they should stay at home. Good old misogyny with new packaging fit for the digital age.

In the dna
But in short, what else could we expect from Meta? Let us remember that Facebook was born as “Facemash”: a tool with which students could rate their classmates. Misogyny is in the company’s DNA and very little seems to have changed over the years. I certainly don’t need to tell you that the company has been criticized repeatedly for ignoring misogyny and sexual harassment on the platform. News is recent that Dani Lever, communications manager at Facebook, worked for Andrew Cuomo and helped the disgraced former New York state governor throw mud on Lindsey Boylan, a woman on his staff who had accused him. of sexual harassment. “In my opinion there are extremes to blame the victim,” Lever wrote, referring to Boylan in a message released by the New York Attorney General’s office.

Sexual harassment in digital spaces has been a problem since the birth of the internet. However, as the beta tester who was groped on Horizon worlds noted, the immersive nature of virtual reality adds a whole new dimension to violence. The point of virtual reality is to make your brain believe that your body is actually experiencing a certain thing. I don’t have to be the one to tell you how horrible this could get in relation to online harassment. Yet there are still many who dismiss or belittle the concept of virtual abuse without thinking too much about it, just because “real” bodies are not involved. Furthermore, regulations are less up-to-date than innovations, and harassment in virtual reality falls into a legal gray area. As the MIT Technology Review points out, there is not even “a body explicitly responsible for the rights and safety of those who participate in anything online, let alone in virtual worlds”. People like Zuckerberg want us to think that the metaverse is the future, but it’s just a new place for old problems that no one seems to want to solve.

A South Korean dairy company apologizes for comparing women to cows Seoul milk launched a very bizarre advertisement in which a man was seen secretly filming a group of women who then turned into cows. This has not been taken well for a number of obvious reasons, including the fact that South Korea has major problems with the molka, that is, the practice of secretly filming women and then uploading the videos to paid sites.

Indian politician apologizes for saying you should “stay cool and enjoy” rape “It is said that when rape is unavoidable, the best thing to do is to stay good and enjoy it,” said parliamentarian KR Ramesh Kumar during a debate on farmers’ rights in the Karnataka state assembly. Apparently a group of male MPs found it funny and laughed. The politician then offered an unconvinced apology for what he called “an impromptu comment”.

Chris Noth accused of sexual harassment by two women The meetings, which took place more than ten years apart, have been reported in detail and are particularly disturbing. In a statement to the Hollywood Reporter, the actor of Sex and the city he called the allegations “categorically false” and claimed that the meetings were consensual. However, Noth is already involved in new accusations and on social networks a newspaper clipping from the nineties is circulating in which the accusations addressed to the actor by his ex wife Beverly Johnson are reported.

Claudette Colvin, a pioneer of civil rights, has a clean criminal record Everyone knows the name of Rosa Park, but you may never have heard of Colvin. In 1955, nine months before Parks was arrested for not getting up from her seat on a bus, 15-year-old Colvin was charged with the same “crime.” As Gary Younge wrote, “according to local civil rights movement leaders Colvin was too dark, too poor and, after getting pregnant, too compromised” to become the face of the movement. Parks was a “more deserving victim”. Not only was Colvin denied his place in history, but that incident remained on his criminal record. Today it was finally eliminated. “My name is clean,” Colvin told CBS. “At 82, I’m no longer a young delinquent”.

Indian journalists scammed with “Harvard” job offers Unknown scammers have gone to great lengths to try to fool prominent Indian journalists into quitting their jobs to take on (completely bogus) positions at Harvard. No one knows why these women were targeted, although there are theories about a possible connection with the criticism of the Indian government. It’s an absurd story worth reading.

Jacinda Ardern confirmed in between that orgies can resume in New Zealand “I can confirm that relationships on Tinder are reopened,” Ardern announced on national television. “They are not explicitly mentioned in the covid protection system, but meetings of up to 25 people are allowed in the red zone.”

(Translation by Giusy Muzzopappa)