Earlier Parts of this series
Part 1, Why Now?
Part 2, A Peculiar Economy
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:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu6HDd7gDr8
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.
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