Meta beta tester says she was ‘gang raped’ in virtual reality

A woman who was beta testing for Mark Zuckerberg’s polarising new metaverse claims she was “gang raped” on the platform.

A woman has claimed she was “gang raped” immediately after entering Facebook’s Metaverse, telling of how several digital men groped and belittled her.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has described the polarising new venture as a “virtual environment” where users can immerse themselves in digital stimuli instead of just staring at a screen.

In theory, the metaverse will be a place where people can meet, work and play using virtual reality headsets, augmented reality glasses, smartphone apps or other devices.

Companies quick to the jump have already begun selling off digital real estate and NFTs of online art to populate the landscape, for when (or if) humanity begins to plug into Zuckerberg’s playworld at scale.

However, according to Londoner Nina Jane Patel, the space is already producing traumatising events for beta testers.

“Within 60 seconds of joining—I was verbally and sexually harassed—3-4 male avatars, with male voices, essentially, but virtually gang-raped my avatar and took photos,” Mrs Patel wrote.

“As I tried to get away, they yelled, ‘Don’t pretend you didn’t love it’ and ‘Go rub yourself off to the photo.’ It was surreal. It was a nightmare.”

In her column, Mrs Patel claimed “virtual reality has essentially been designed so the mind and body can’t differentiate virtual/digital experiences from real”.

“In some capacity, my physiological and psychological response was as though it happened in reality,” she said.

Meta’s vice president of Horizon Vivek Sharma said the incident was “absolutely unfortunate”, urging the beta tester to use a safety feature that allows you to block users you do not wish to interact with.

Sharma said the tester’s report was “good feedback” as the company moves to improve its model for wider distribution.

Horizon Venues is a branch of the metaverse, aiming to be a space to host virtual events, such as concerts.

“We’re sorry to hear this happened. We want everyone in Horizon Venues to have a positive experience, easily find the safety tools that can help in a situation like this—and help us investigate and take action,” Meta spokesman Joe Osborne told VICE News.

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Woman ‘gang raped’ in FB Metaverse.

“Horizon Venues should be safe, and we are committed to building it that way,” Osborne continued. “We will continue to make improvements as we learn more about how people interact in these spaces, especially when it comes to helping people report things easily and reliably.”

Zuckerberg is betting that the metaverse will be the next generation of the internet because he thinks it’s going to be a big part of the digital economy. He expects people to start seeing Meta as a “metaverse company” in the coming years, rather than a social media company.

For now, though, the metaverse exists only as an amorphous idea envisioned — and named — by the science fiction author Neal Stephenson three decades ago.

It’s not yet clear if it’ll be the next iteration of human-computer interaction the way Zuckerberg sees it, or just another playground for techies and gamers.

Meta’s shares fell 22.6 per cent to $249.90 in after-hours trading in what was a significant tumble for Zuckerberg’s empire.

It’s not yet clear if it’ll be the next iteration of human-computer interaction the way Zuckerberg sees it, or just another playground for techies and gamers.

If the drop holds until the market opens Thursday, the company’s overall value, known as its market capitalisation, is on track to drop by a figure greater than the size of the entire Greek economy, based on data from the World Bank.

Meta invested more than $10 billion in its Reality Labs segment — which includes its virtual reality headsets and augmented reality technology — in 2021, contributing to the quarter’s profit decline.

It expanded its workforce by 23%, ending the year with 71,970 employees, mostly in technical roles.

The company also said revenue in the current quarter is likely to come in below market expectations, due in part to growing competition from TikTok and other rival platforms vying for people’s attention.