WASHINGTON—Multi-user immersive experiences (MUIEs) built with AR/VR technologies—three-dimensional, digitally rendered environments where multiple users can interact with other people and virtual objects in real-time—present new content moderation challenges. As MUIEs become more popular not only for entertainment, but also in educational and professional contexts, more work will be necessary to create safe and welcoming environments. A new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the leading think tank for science and technology policy, calls on policymakers to take steps to mitigate potential harms while these technologies are still in their beginning stages and work with developers to balance user safety, privacy, and free expression.
“MUIEs may be the next phase in the evolution of communication technologies, yet they come with many challenges,” said Daniel Castro, vice president of ITIF and author of the report. “Under moderating them poses risks to user safety with the potential for hate speech and harassment, violation of another user’s personal space in virtual environments, inappropriate or non-consensual content, and misinformation or defamatory speech. MUIEs will need to develop their own best practices for moderating this new medium to address these issues.”
Currently, there are policy gaps within the U.S. regulatory landscape to address potential harms with online content and conduct, leaving platforms and other industry actors to fill. Other social platforms, including multiplayer online games, audio-only social media channels, videoconferencing and live streaming services, and photo-sharing apps, already pose similar risks and offer insights on how MUIEs might respond to hate speech, harassment, and other unwelcome communications. If left unaddressed, these regulatory gaps will widen and open up the possibility of malicious activity and platform abuse due to inadequate protection.
ITIF offers several policy recommendations to protect both users and non-users from egregious potential harms and establish necessary guidelines to help platforms navigate novel challenges for content policy and online speech:
- Strengthen protections against potential real-world harms through legal measures that protect individuals from physical, emotional, and reputational harms that could arise from malicious misuse of digital communications platforms, regardless of the format;
- Create channels for platforms and law enforcement to work together to tackle highly dangerous content to mitigate online threats on MUIEs while ensuring the speech rights of the majority of users who are not engaging in dangerous or unlawful activities;
- Develop voluntary guidelines for addressing harmful content in immersive experiences between the Department of Commerce and platforms;
- Create a working group in cooperation with the U.S. Copyright and Patent and Trademark Offices to develop guidance on intellectual property and copyright protections;
- Ensure intermediary liability protections extend to immersive platforms and include MIUEs in their deliberations to amend Section 230 or other regulatory landscape changes for Internet intermediaries.
“As the efforts to promote more widespread adoption of the metaverse continues, self-regulation and industry standards will be necessary to establish best practices for content policies in these immersive environments,” said Castro. “Policymakers should look to the lessons learned from existing platforms to establish necessary safeguards and ensure the companies developing these technologies face a regulatory environment that encourages innovative approaches to content moderation.”
Read the report.
