Moderating the Oasis: Crime Prevention in the Metaverse
Crime Amplification in the Metaverse:
The recent, May 2022 crime amplification via a Twitch stream of the Buffalo (USA) shooter incident served as a huge red alert; Something I'd not given enough thought to when solving for immersive human-interaction in the Metaverse.
Criminals, sociopaths and psychopaths love an audience. Streaming platforms become a broadcast channel for them, giving them world-wide exposure and audiences in real-time, while they commit anything from petty crime to the more gruesome.
In using the Metaverse's true potential of connecting people- what the Twitch streaming incident teaches us, is that serious thought should be given to the degree of "agency" afforded to users and how fast can fail-safes be tripped into action should something untoward occur. How fast can a Metaverse wide blackout of such broadcasts be done?
The XR Metaverse - Bridging the Metaverse with Real Life
Upcoming Augmented eyewear from a multitude of Big-tech companies, will allow for the Metaverse to be 'draped' over the real world we walk in.
One, Times Square, NY's screens when looked at via XR eye-wear (today via cellphone cameras) could have alternative videos displayed on them. Taking over this "AR airspace" in the real world and the XRMetaverse is not impossible to criminals seeking maximum exposure.
Possibly, A.I. video recognition and voice analysis deployed to monitor these virtual video billboards will play a big part in alerting to such threats and is something designers of #Metaverse platforms such as Meta Horizons, upcoming 'XRMetaverses' from Niantic, a Sony-metaverse... Netflix.. and indeed Gaming metaverses, should look into, to administer the Virtual and well as the XRmetaverse.
The utopian dream of total anarchy, decentralized and without regulation, unfortunately can have a dark side to it.
United Meta-Nations: Policing the Metaverse
Several "miniverses'; Apple metaverse, AT&T metaverse...Verizon, Google, Facebook ,Sony... Twitch metaverse.. will all come together to form the "Metaverse". This is where inter co-operation is vital. Even if e-commerce anarchy is preferred --There ought to be a UM (United MetaNations) like body with an agreement and accord in place on crime police-ing to allow instant blocking across metaverses to deny criminals the attention they crave and denying perverse audiences the ability of 'tuning into' another XR-broadcast frequency.
A primitive analogy is if the Buffalo shooting was streamed on Twitch, Youtube, and Facebook at the same time.
GameFi and Kill-to-earn: Hunger Games in the Cryptoverse.
Crime proliferation and amplification is a real danger posed by attention seeking deranged criminals.
While seemingly far fetched, there's nothing to stop a crazed, eccentric Crypto billionaire from offering payment in crypto, to a real world psychopath, in a twisted flavor of kill-to-earn; a variant of today's play-to-earn gaming that's popular in "web3" gaming. It could get a lot worse with millions of people logged in- a ready metaverse wide, audience.
At some point the building of the Metaverse morphed into a Cryptoverse; where every interaction has become a transaction.
GameFi has become synonymous with play-to-earn and that's slowly hijacking the definition of Web3.0 We should understand that Web3 is meant to offer a lot more than just connecting crypto-wallets, if the Metaverse is to grow.
The Metaverse will facilitate human interaction at planet-scale, where people in the real world can jack-in to a VR metaverse or walk the real world with AR glasses, interacting with digital people ,digital video, and CG overlays via an XR layer atop the real-world.
Let's attempt to keep it a safe place to collaborate and evolve, as a species.