Lego Prepares a Metaverse Collaboration With Epic Games to Target Digital Markets

March 10, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Death in the metaverse: Web3 aims to offer new answers to old questions

March 8, 2023 Coin Telegraph

As contemporary society continues to digitize, life in the metaverse raises the same timeless questions about what happens after death.

The age-old question of “what happens after we die” is one humanity has grappled with for millennia. Religions, philosophers and thought leaders have put forth theories about each person’s fate beyond life on earth. Until now, no factual, science-based conclusion has provided a satisfying answer.

Psychologists have understood that the fear of death — or the realization of mortality — is a major motivator of human action. Developments such as cloning and creating virtual worlds, which were previously science fiction, have come to reality, perhaps as another scramble to answer this question — or even defeat death.

Now, in the age of the metaverse, humans are the architects of a new digital world and, therefore, a new digital life. In the Web3 space, the metaverse has garnered much attention from outside investment and increased participation from legacy companies. The metaverse sector will have an estimated value of $5 trillion by 2030.

Many believe that the metaverse will reshape how social life is structured.

This new genesis of digital life naturally brings out the same timeless questions — with a twist. If life is reinvented in digital reality, will death also be different? Specifically, what happens after we die in the metaverse as humans and avatars?

What happens when we die digitally?

The existential question of what happens after we die remains unanswerable regarding our souls’ final or next destination. However, cultures worldwide have different ways of handling death-related ceremonies, which is the human experience of deciding what happens to our bodies after death.

As more people continue to digitize their identities, create avatars in virtual worlds and hold digital assets, the question of what happens after death reappears.

The introduction of social media was one of the earlier instances of humans having to deal with a digital identity after death.

At Facebook, for example, a user’s profile becomes “memorialized” as a “place for friends and family to gather and share memories after a person has passed away.” It also serves as a security feature to prevent any future logins.

Facebook’s parent company Meta has been actively pursuing metaverse development. Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s founder, made an explainer video for Meta’s metaverse in October 2021.

While the clip didn’t explicitly mention death, users began asking the death in the metaverse question. Shortly after, a dystopian meme circulated on social media with a quote attributed to Zuckerberg: “If you die in the metaverse, you die in real life.”

pic.twitter.com/OtHRWEbDeq
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 30, 2021

Nonetheless, founders and executives of metaverse platforms are toying with the idea of death as digital reality develops.

Recent: In crypto winter, DeFi needs an overhaul to mature and grow

Frank Wilder, the co-founder of metaverse platform Wilder World, told Cointelegraph that as we build sacred places within the metaverse and create new avatar versions of ourselves, the concept of “dying” is no longer limited to the death of a physical body:

“In this digital world, we have the ability to imagine new forms of existence after death, such as the preservation of a person’s digital consciousness or the creation of a virtual memorial.”

Wilder said that honoring the “sacredness of life is a delicate exploration,” and humans will inherit various avenues to choose how they would like to honor their life.

Cemeteries in the sky

For Mariana Cabugueira, the lead architect and urban planner of Wilder World’s first digital city, Wiami, this “new dimension of reality” invites a fresh approach to preserve legacies.

Take the concept of cemeteries, for example. In her view, metaverse cemeteries will be less like graveyards and more like designated memorial spaces with capsules that hold memory and soul, created by the owner for digital rest.

“These digital capsules share how we want to be remembered and honored, tell our story, and convey the warm feeling of a soul.”

Although avatars do not age, the mind behind the avatar can supersede the digital character and deserves closure and celebration, Cabugueira said, adding, “memory-capsule cemeteries will be places for life closure, for ending our characters — a self we departed from — or a stage of life we are no longer in.”

A memorial stone from Remember, an ecosystem that allows users to mint memorials for important life events. Source: Remember

In Wilder World, Cabugueira has a vision of how these spaces will visually take shape. She said these memorial spaces would be high-up “like cathedrals,” with symbolism tied to the sky and light.

“Remembrance is no longer just a burial but a celebration of life evolving,” she said.

Ethics of digital life after death

Digital cemeteries are only one part of what happens after a digital death. A more pressing question is: What happens to our digital assets and data?

Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, believes we’re still early in this discussion. He told Cointelegraph that those thinking about these things are doing so more in terms of “how custody of assets can be transferred to heirs rather than managing metaverse identity.” Siu said:

“In the metaverse, your digital persona can still have influence and impact even if it’s no longer operated by you. In fact, a digital persona might become even more influential and therefore valuable after physical death.”

Marja Konttinen, the marketing director of the Decentraland Foundation — the founding organization of the Decentraland metaverse — said that virtual worlds are often thought of as a “thing of the future;” however, they can also be a powerful tool as windows into the past.

Konttinen highlighted that a digital twin that continues life after its users’ physical death could raise ethical questions similar to those surrounding artificial intelligence and deep fakes.

“It certainly opens up the possibility of creating a permanent virtual mausoleum of our memories and experiences, maybe in the form of a NPC [non-player character] that looks and speaks like us, forever living in the metaverse,” she said.

‘Thanotechnology’ and ‘dremains’

Death in digital reality has united emerging technologies with older fields of study surround death and grieving.

Cole Imperi is a thanatologist — a specialist in understanding death, dying, grief and bereavement, derived from the Greek word for death, “thanatos” — and founder of the School of American Thanatology. She told Cointelegraph that there is a subfield in thanatology called “thanotechnology” that focuses on the intersection of her field and technology.

She told Cointelegraph that digital spaces could offer more ways to “seamlessly connect the dead with the living,” which physical spaces don’t have:

“The digital afterlife offers more opportunity for continued bonds with our deceased loved ones and, I believe, also houses the greatest opportunity for advancement in how we memorialize and remember our loved ones.”

In 2009, Imperi even coined the term “dremains,” which refers to the digital remains people leave behind online after death. Imperi helps run the ThanaLab, which monitors “online memorialization patterns and developments related to user death.”

She said the digital death of users is becoming more prevalent, and it’s only natural to bring this aspect of our physical lives into a digital space.

Do we have answers?

The metaverse has been a long time coming. In 1992, the American sci-fi writer Neal Stephenson first coined the term metaverse, even before the existence of any of the platforms we have today.

That said, even now, as we have more tangible ideas of the metaverse and its capabilities, it is still in its infancy. This means that important concepts to humanity that have a place in the physical world, such as death, are still taking shape digitally.

Recent: Is the IMF shutting the door prematurely on Bitcoin as legal tender?

Digital architects like Mariana Cabugueira are now reenvisioning the future of digital cemeteries, and researchers like Cole Imperi are monitoring the digital remains of human life online.

We still may not know what happens after we die; however, in the metaverse, we’re getting much closer to the answer.

The metaverse is getting a greenhouse and a garden full of NFT flowers

March 8, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Art

The Heterosis project allows users to collect breedable, dynamic NFTs of digital flowers, all of which are housed in a metaverse rendition of London's National Gallery.

The world of Web3 has offered users the opportunity to recreate their digital identity, along with offering new avenues of creative expression and individuality. This is more so the case as nonfungible tokens (NFTs) become more dynamic and personalizable.

On Feb. 8 a new project from Snark.art and OG.Art called Heterosis launched a collection of dynamic NFT flowers that are breedable and customizable by holders.

After the initial mint of the NFT flower, users are able to look into the greater catalog of flowers available and begin to “breed” flowers to create a hybrid species. According to the project’s announcement, when a new flower trait is discovered, it spreads across the entire population, “just like the diversification in nature works.”

Flower collectors who want to hybridize their NFT blossom must pay the owner of the flower they wish to breed with a small fee, creating two virtual flower markets. One for selling rare digital flowers, and the other for selling DNA traits.

The collection was created by artists Mat Collishaw and Danil Krivoruchko. Collishaw said he wanted to create a type of art that wasn’t available in any other context other than the metaverse.

“These mechanics are essential to the Heterosis project and are especially valuable to us as something that’s possible only in a decentralized space.”

Krivoruchko said creating art for an NFT project that has the possibility to evolve with different traits was “the most complicated digital art collection” he has worked on.

In addition, the flowers part of the NFT garden will be housed in a “metaverse greenhouse,” created by metaverse developers EL-GABAL, that is modeled after a dystopian version of the National Gallery in London.

*Heterosis metaverse greenhouse. Source: Heterosis*

The greenhouse can be accessed through a computer browser, mobile phone or virtual reality sets via real-time audio-visual renderings taking place in the cloud.

Metaverse ushering in the next generation of mental healthcare services

March 8, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Innerworld CEO Noah Robinson and grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Jewel spoke with Cointelegraph to explain how mental health support systems thrive in virtual reality.

Like many other industries, healthcare has begun implementing Web3 technologies to better serve those in need. Healthcare services now appear in the metaverse, specifically for those seeking mental healthcare.

Cointelegraph spoke with two executives from Innerword — a metaverse peer-to-peer mental health support group program — about how the metaverse can change the next generation of mental healthcare services.

Connectivity is a trait inherently built into virtual environments, as is the ability to connect with more anonymity via the use of avatars and usernames. Noah Robinson, the platform’s CEO and founder, said, in the mental healthcare scene, “this helps people open up more and be more vulnerable, which in turn leads to faster healing.”

*Innerworld mental health support group. Source: Innerworld*

He continued to say that unlike traditional therapy sessions, which are often limited in their access, metaverse-based sessions allow people access to “an entire community full of empathetic, caring people” available 24/7.

“Democratizing access looks like allowing people to access mental health help whenever they need it, however much they need.”

According to the Innerworld CEO, the platform underwent three years of clinical research, with over 20,000 hours in beta before its launch.

Innerworld's chief strategy officer Jewel, also known for her career as a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, said her mental health journey began as a teenager and that she wonders what it's like today for kids like her.

She told Cointelegraph that as she began to look at virtual reality, she quickly realized that it could be used as a tool to provide peer-to-peer support, using methods such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Tools.

“The potential was great - we actually had a system that could scale that could deliver profound mental health intervention.”

Already other Web3 tools such as artificial intelligence, robots and blockchain have been said to be the building blocks of the next generation of healthcare. Now the connectivity and peer-to-peer promises of the metaverse add another layer of support for those in need.

Jewel said this allows platforms like Innerworld to start proof scaling tools, which are typically only available in a clinician's office, along with scaling mental health experts and activities.

“I believe it's going to be the biggest disrupter in a positive way for the mental health space."

According to data collected by Innerworld on user involvement in its metaverse-based support groups, users have experienced a “significant decrease in symptoms of depression and anxiety.”

In the academic sphere, professionals have said mental health support is a prime industry for decentralization.

15 influential women entrepreneurs in Web3

March 8, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Blockchain

Discover the influential women entrepreneurs shaping the future of Web3, cryptocurrency, blockchain, metaverse and NFTs.

Web3, the next generation of the internet, is an exciting new space creating opportunities for entrepreneurs across various industries. While the field is still somewhat male-dominated, several influential women entrepreneurs are significantly impacting the Web3 space.

Here are fifteen influential women entrepreneurs in Web3 to celebrate this International Women’s Day — along with their contributions and achievements.

Nicole Muniz

Nicole Muniz is an entrepreneur and CEO of Yuga Labs, the creator of the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club nonfungible token (NFT) collection. She has a background in advertising and marketing, having worked as a producer at J. Walter Thompson and managed accounts at B-Reel, including Google.

Muniz is known for her creative marketing and brand strategy expertise, which has helped Yuga Labs grow and become a leading player in the NFT space. Her work in Web3 has been influential in shaping the future of blockchain-based digital art and collectibles.

Elizabeth Stark

Elizabeth Stark is the co-founder and CEO of Lightning Labs, a company developing a protocol for fast and scalable Bitcoin transactions. She is also an advocate for blockchain technology and has been featured in several publications, including The New York Times and Forbes. She has presented at venues including TEDx and the MIT Media Lab.

Stark has also been involved in the development of various other blockchain-related projects. Before her work in the blockchain sector, Stark taught computer science at Yale, Harvard and Stanford universities.

Caitlin Long

Caitlin Long is a prominent entrepreneur, lawyer and blockchain advocate known for her work in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries. She is the founder and CEO of Custodia Bank, a Wyoming-based digital asset bank that aims to provide banking services to the cryptocurrency industry.

Before this, Long served as the chairman and president of Symbiont, the smart contract platform specializing in smart securities. She has also held various positions on Wall Street, including managing director at Morgan Stanley and head of corporate strategy at Credit Suisse.

Cathie Wood

Cathie Wood is an American entrepreneur and founder of ARK Invest, a global asset management firm specializing in disruptive technology companies, including those involved in blockchain and cryptocurrency. Wood is known for her bold investment strategies and forward-thinking approach to disruptive technologies.

Wood won CEO of the Year at the 2021 Markets Choice Awards and frequently comments on financial and technology issues.

Cathy Hackl

Cathy Hackl is the founder and chief metaverse officer at Journey, an innovation and design consultancy. A popular futurist, speaker and proponent of augmented reality (AR), Cathy Hackl is also a recognized expert in branding and marketing techniques for virtual and augmented reality. Hackl frequently contributes to Forbes and has been named one of the top 10 tech voices on LinkedIn.

She has worked with several well-known businesses, such as AT&T, Magic Leap and Vive. Hackl also co-authored Marketing New Realities: An Introduction to Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality Marketing, Branding & Communications.

He Yi

He Yi is an entrepreneur and co-founder of Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. She was instrumental in the early growth of Binance, contributing to the exchange’s brand development and user growth. She also became the head of Binance Labs in 2022. Yi previously held the position of director of marketing at another cryptocurrency exchange, OKCoin.

She has received recognition for her work in the blockchain sector, and in 2019 she was included in Forbes’ list of Asia’s 30 Under 30. He Yi founded Binance Charity, a nonprofit group that uses blockchain technology to support charity causes worldwide, in addition to her work at Binance.

Brittany Kaiser

Brittany Kaiser is a former Cambridge Analytica employee turned whistleblower, and a prominent figure in data privacy and political campaigning. She rose to fame while working for Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting firm at the center of controversial data gathering during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Kaiser became an advocate for data privacy and openness in political campaigning after leaving Cambridge Analytica.

She has spoken at various conferences and events worldwide, giving testimony on the Cambridge Analytica controversy before the U.K. Parliament. Kaiser founded the Digital Asset Trade Association, a nonprofit group dedicated to improving data rights and promoting the ethical use of data in the digital age. She is also the co-founder of the Own Your Data Foundation — which advocates for citizens reclaiming their data — and the author of the book Targeted: My Inside Story of Cambridge Analytica and How Trump Won.

Jaime Leverton

Jaime Leverton is a Canadian business executive who has held leadership roles in various technology companies, including as CEO of Hut 8 Mining and chief operating officer of hyper-scale data center company eStruxture. Leverton founded Hut 8 in 2017. The company offers high-performance computing, digital asset mining and miner repair services.

She has over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications and technology industries, with expertise in strategic planning, business development and operational management.

Lisa Loud

Lisa Loud is a highly accomplished entrepreneur and fintech strategist with a proven track record of success in major blockchain and tech companies such as BitMEX, ShapeShift, Apple and PayPal. As the co-founder and CEO of Fluidefi, Loud’s extensive experience in technology has fueled her passion for the future of money.

Her analytical perspective, strategic leadership and ability to anticipate industry trends have earned her a place on the Rising Women in Crypto Power List for 2022 — and many more accolades.

Eugenia Kuyda

Eugenia Kuyda is a Russian-born entrepreneur and computer scientist based in the United States. She is best known as the co-founder and CEO of Replika, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot app designed to simulate human conversation. Since 2020, Replika’s usage has increased by 35%, reaching over 10 million users worldwide in 2022.

Before founding Replika, Kuyda co-founded Luka, a messaging app that used AI to recommend local restaurants and cafes. Her first software, Bribr, which let users covertly track bribery attempts, was built shortly after she worked as a journalist for one of the leading daily newspapers in Russia.

Jinglan Wang

Jinglan Wang is the co-founder and CEO of PlasmaPay, a decentralized financial platform that allows users to buy, sell and store cryptocurrencies. As CEO of PlasmaPay, Wang is focused on driving the company’s growth and expanding its reach in the global payments market. Since 2013, she has been active in the cryptocurrency sector, with numerous organizations like the Blockchain Association of Ukraine recognizing her services to the sector.

Jutta Steiner

Jutta Steiner is a computer scientist and entrepreneur best known for her work in the blockchain industry. She is the co-founder and CEO of Parity Technologies, a blockchain infrastructure company focused on developing software solutions for the Ethereum blockchain. Steiner held several positions at the cybersecurity company McAfee before beginning her career in the blockchain sector. She was also a researcher at the University of Edinburgh.

She has also participated in several open-source software initiatives, and is a fervent supporter of decentralized technologies and their potential to revolutionize many industries. Steiner has delivered keynote addresses at several conferences and gatherings worldwide, and is regarded as a leader in the blockchain sector.

Linda Xie

Linda Xie is the co-founder and managing director of Scalar Capital, a cryptocurrency investment firm. She is also a co-founder of CryptoSight, a platform that lets cryptocurrency investors track and analyze their portfolios. Xie is a well-known name in the cryptocurrency sector, appearing in several publications, including Forbes and Fortune.

Swan Sit

Swan Sit is a marketing and branding expert who has worked with various companies in the technology and startup space. Swan graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Harvard and a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University. Swan has served as the head of digital marketing at Nike, Revlon and Estée Lauder, where she oversaw teams dedicated to digital transformation.

Sit has also been referred to as “the Queen of Clubhouse” by Forbes. She gained this title because she successfully leveraged the audio-based social media app, Clubhouse to build her personal brand and connect with other professionals in the technology and startup space.

Jaime Schmidt

Jaime Schmidt is an entrepreneur and co-founder of Schmidt’s Naturals, a personal care brand known for its natural and innovative products. Schmidt is also the co-founder of Color Capital, an investment fund specializing in Web3 and consumer goods. In 2022, she founded BFF, a decentralized organization facilitating a growing community of women and non-binary individuals seeking equitable access to knowledge, opportunity and financial rewards in the evolving Web3 landscape.

Within a short span of a month, the community has garnered an impressive 14,000 members. Schmidt is a regular contributor to Fast Company and Entrepreneur, and has also been recognized as one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs (Goldman Sachs, 2017, 2018), and the PNW Entrepreneur of the Year (Ernst & Young, 2017) — among others.

Hexa Raises $20.5 Million to Take Real Objects to the Metaverse

March 8, 2023 Bitcoin.com

EU Commission to ensure ‘healthy competition’ in the Metaverse

March 8, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Margrethe Vestager, the executive vice president of the European Commission, stressed the need to anticipate and plan for changes in technological advancements.

Considering the regulatory struggle to keep up with ever-evolving innovations, Margrethe Vestager, the executive vice president of the European Commission, recommended a headstart into brainstorming implications of technologies such as the Metaverse and ChatGPT.

Vestager highlighted how digital transition and the shift to a digital economy have brought about risk and opportunities for the masses while speaking at the Keystone Conference about competition policy. She believes that legislations lag behind technological advancements, adding:

“We have certainly not been too quick to act - and this can be an important lesson for us in the future.”

While the enforcement and legislative process will continue to stay a step behind tech innovations, Vestager stressed the need to anticipate and plan for such changes. She stated:

“For example, it is already time for us to start asking what healthy competition should look like in the Metaverse, or how something like ChatGPT may change the equation.”

She also revealed that EU Commission would enforce antitrust investigations from May 2023 aimed toward the Facebook marketplace and how Meta uses ads-related data from rivals, among others.

Feb. 15 marked the launch of the European Blockchain Regulatory Sandbox, which provides a space for regulatory dialog for 20 projects per year through 2026.

With our consulting arm OXYGY, today we announce, together with the @EU_Commission, that applications are now open for the first cohort of the European blockchain regulatory sandbox for blockchain/DLT innovators @EuropeanSandbox:#blockchain #sandbox https://t.co/ZNbjUCTubp pic.twitter.com/PtdS0oBS8p
— Bird & Bird (@twobirds) February 14, 2023

On the other end of the spectrum, European Union lawmakers are in talks about using zero-knowledge proofs for digital IDs. Cointelegraph’s report on the matter highlighted:

“The new eID would allow citizens to identify and authenticate themselves online (via a European digital identity wallet) without having to resort to commercial providers, as is the case today - a practice that raised trust, security and privacy concerns.”

Zero-knowledge proofs have recently been at the center of researchers’ attention as a possible means to ensure regulatory compliance and privacy in digital currencies.

Democratic Senators Push Against Meta’s Idea of Bringing the Metaverse to Teens

March 6, 2023 Bitcoin.com

The metaverse is testing the limits of what is legally possible

March 3, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

While digital events and spaces have become increasingly common over the last few years, is the digital reality the right place for all types of moments, such as court proceedings?

It’s no secret that over the last few years, many physical events have now digital iterations or have even been completely digitized into virtual reality.

Recently, in Colombia, a local judge decided to bring a court hearing into the metaverse as an experiment with the technology. It was a civil case involving a traffic incident, which will progress further “partially” in the metaverse.

While many believe that the metaverse will reshape our social lives, it begs the question if digital reality can best serve important societal moments such as court cases where an individual’s future may be at stake. Cointelegraph spoke with Carlo D’Angelo, a former law professor and crypto criminal defense lawyer, to better understand the possible role of the metaverse in the legal system.

The metaverse court case in Colombia was not so far off from what legal systems around the world needed to do during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was to go digital. D’Angelo said:

“This urgent need to conduct the court’s business, [amid] a global pandemic, most certainly accelerated the mass adoption by judges of Zoom and other video conferencing services.”

D’Angelo told Cointelegraph that while these Zoom sessions worked for moving dockets and court hearings, he said with the technology we’re currently working with it is not well suited for jury trials.

*Colombian court hearing held in the Metaverse, February 15, 2023. Source: Reuters*

The main reason is all of the in-person “subtle visual cues,” biases and verbal and non-verbal cues that are not picked up remotely, especially behind a metaverse avatar.

“While it may be possible to overcome these issues in a civil trial—especially with the consent of the parties—virtual criminal trials raise additional concerns.”

D’Angelo said watching the Colombian court hearing made him wonder what physical cues were being missed out on, such as a raise of an eyebrow from the judge or fidgeting from the opposition.

“I feel like advocating through a digital avatar takes something raw and emotionally vital away from that experience.”

He continued to say that it may be possible to overcome some of these issues in a civil trial, though virtual criminal trials will continue to raise additional concerns, as a person’s freedom is on the line.

At least in the United States, he said too many constitutional rights are at stake, such as a defendant’s right to be “present” at trial and the right to “confront” the prosecution’s witnesses under the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. constitution.

D’Angelo said as both a lawyer and a “technologist,” he is bullish on the future of Web3 technology and how it can advance the legal profession. However, he believes there are still many challenges to overcome before courts adopt metaverse trials and hearings.

“Innovation cannot come at the expense of a fair trial.”

He said the future of metaverse court hearings will largely depend on the mass adoption of AR/VR by the general public. If all parties involved are comfortable with the technology, he said, “maybe we will see metaverse hearings start to show up on court dockets.”

At the moment, there is a growing community of lawyers, advocates and others involved in legal matters which are becoming familiar with Web3 technologies and how they can impact the industry.

US lawmaker behind crypto mining legislation urges Zuck not to offer metaverse to teenagers

March 2, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

A letter from two U.S. senators cited reports of Instagram being behind many teenagers experiencing suicidal thoughts, and Meta's failure to stop harmful ads aimed at young adults.

Two United States senators have penned a letter asking Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to halt a plan to allow young adults to access the firm’s metaverse platform, Horizon Worlds.

In a March 1 letter, Senators Edward Markey and Richard Blumenthal said that Meta’s reported plan to “invite young users into a digital space rife with potential harms” should not be implemented if the strategy was driven by profit. According to the two lawmakers, allowing teenagers between 13 and 17 years old access to the virtual environment posed “serious risks”, citing privacy concerns, eye strain, and online bullying.

“Meta’s plan to target young people with offerings in the metaverse is particularly concerning in light of your consistent failures to protect young users,” said Markey and Blumenthal to Zuckerberg. “With a documented track record of failure to protect children and teens, Meta has lost parents’, pediatricians’, policymakers’, and the public’s trust.”

Just like the internet today, the metaverse will have both public venues as well as spaces for more private conversations. And you’ll be able to choose how you want to participate. pic.twitter.com/JoGjrHmnlc
— Meta (@Meta) January 25, 2022

The two senators cited reports of Instagram being behind many teenagers experiencing suicidal thoughts, as well as the firm’s failure to stop ads for “tobacco, alcohol, and eating disorder content” targeted at young adults:

“As our constituents grow increasingly concerned about the effects of online platforms and social media apps on teens’ well-being, your plans to imminently pull these young people into an under-researched, potentially dangerous virtual realm with consequences for their physical and mental health is unacceptable.”

Markey, a junior senator representing Massachusetts, has previously signed on to legislation targeting the environmental impact of crypto mining and called on mining firms to answer questions regarding data collection. Blumenthal was behind a bill in the last session of the U.S. Congress aimed at allowing third-party applications and app stores on devices released from major tech firms.

Metaverse

What happens when we die digitally?

Cemeteries in the sky

Ethics of digital life after death

‘Thanotechnology’ and ‘dremains’

Do we have answers?

Nicole Muniz

Elizabeth Stark

Caitlin Long

Cathie Wood

Cathy Hackl

He Yi

Brittany Kaiser

Jaime Leverton

Lisa Loud

Eugenia Kuyda

Jinglan Wang

Jutta Steiner

Linda Xie

Swan Sit

Jaime Schmidt

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