Global police organization Interpol stated that it was ready for the possibility that online immersive environments, or the “metaverse,” could both invent new types of criminality and enable existing crime to be committed on a greater scale.
According to Madan Oberoi, Interpol’s executive director for technology and innovation, member nations have expressed worry about how to prepare for potential metaverse crime. He said that some of the crimes may be new in nature and some could be familiar but taken to a new level.
The Metaverse Could Alter Crime Patterns
According to Oberoi, augmented reality and virtual reality could affect how phishing and frauds operate. He stated that concerns over child safety were also there and that crime in the real world might be made easier by virtual reality.
“If terror group wants to attack a physical space they may use this space to plan and simulate and launch their exercises before attacking,” he said.
Potential Terrorist Breeding Ground
In a report published earlier this month, the law enforcement organization for the European Union, Europol, warned that terrorist organizations would in the future use virtual worlds for recruiting, training, and propaganda. According to the article, users can even construct virtual worlds with “extremist rules.”
According to Europol, If metaverse environments keep blockchain records of user interactions, it could make it easy to track a person’s every move based on only one interaction, which could be useful information for stalkers or extortionists.
In 2021, the term “metaverse” entered the digital lexicon as businesses and investors staked money on the rise in popularity of virtual worlds and the ensuing “new era” of the internet. In October 2021, Facebook declared it would change its name to Meta to reflect this new direction.
But thus far, there are little indications that this vision will come true. The price of Meta’s stock fell on Thursday as investors expressed doubt about making bets in the metaverse. After a period of frenzied growth last year, sales of blockchain-based assets representing virtual land and other digital holdings have also dropped significantly.
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