A team of researchers led by Camille Francois, of Columbia University, commissioned by the French competition authority published an investigation into the future metaverse, assessing where the potential risks which regulators must be alert to might lie.
The full report can be found here.
The broad conclusion of the report is that the issues arising from an underregulated metaverse would be similar to the current problems of the existing digital ecosystem. As is true today, the matter of authentication systems (including sign-in to websites) is key.
The major platforms’ current dominance of these solutions allows them to compete unevenly with other providers of various online functionalities and services (e.g., payments).
If the major platforms can control authentication and online identity, the report anticipates that they could encroach on the role typically assigned to states, such as in the issuance of metaverse passports.
The report promotes the idea that experts should be engaged and cites the EU’s mishandling of cryptocurrency legislation.
Likewise, Francois et al warn against power sharing with the large technology platforms. They express concern that if our lives continue to move online, platform terms and conditions will in effect become digital constitutions replacing national judiciaries as the primary modes of governance.
The FBI’s widely publicised conflict with Apple over access to data from terrorists’ iPhones after the San Bernardino attacks, is also cited as well as the ‘judgements’ published by Riot Games, imposing several-thousand-dollar penalties on those in violation of its rules.
In order to prevent public justice being undermined in a universal, virtual world, the authors of the report highlight the importance of independent dispute resolution. The Digital Services Act, for example, provides recourse for users to complain to a supervisory authority.
We welcome the fact that the report sees the potential for the next evolution of cyberspace to reverse the dominance of “web 2.0” by a handful of digital platforms and guarantee an open and interoperable model. This would be achieved by ensuring that the ecosystem operates as an “open garden” and that interoperability standards be adopted. Disappointingly, the report proposes that, as a starting point, the technical standards bodies (so IETF, W3C, Web3D, Khronos etc.) are integrated and, crucially, open and accessible to legal and natural persons. Considering such bodies are currently dominated by the platforms, we see a lot that needs to change before this aspiration becomes a reality.