12/07/2024 Culture, Science, Education and Media
According to the Committee on Culture, the metaverse – a network of interconnected virtual worlds characterised by presence, persistence, immersion and interoperability – represents a new frontier for the digital age, with immersive technologies already being used successfully in multiple sectors such as education, healthcare, art, culture, sport, design, engineering, media and in participatory democracy.
However, the committee is concerned that, whilst governance and legislation struggle to keep pace with technological innovation, questions of accountability for criminal behaviour in the metaverse persist, such as harassment, violence, abuse, fraud, and other human rights violations.
The report by Andi-Lucian Cristea (Romania, SOC), adopted by the committee on 26 June, underlines the need to address the rights and obligations of private companies providing metaverse services, including approaches to “data management, integration of artificial intelligence, enforcement of terms of use and the reporting of criminal behaviour”.
In this respect, the committee called on member States “to ensure that the legislative and regulatory frameworks applicable to metaverse environments uphold democracy, human rights and the rule of law”, to respond to law infringements, and to combat harassment, violence and abuse (especially sexual abuse and child abuse). States should safeguard freedom of expression and deal with new forms of social and political manipulation, in particular disinformation, deep fake avatars, and radical propaganda which could find ground in the metaverse, the parliamentarians said.
The adopted text also stresses the need to “guarantee users' rights to cognitive liberty and mental privacy”, as well as the rights enshrined by the Council of Europe modernised Convention for the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data.
Finally, the committee called on member States to strengthen collaboration with business and industry stakeholders, as well as civil society, in order to “prevent monopolies, agree on codes of ethics for publicly-funded metaverse projects, and put in place sound content regulation”.