Accountability and identity in Metaverse

Any structured society that upholds basic moral and behavioural norms will cherish a fundamental principle at its heart: accountability. In simple terms, there’s an implicit societal contract that acknowledges that everyone should be held responsible for their actions, whether good or bad. Of course, many standards of behaviour are so essential to the smooth running of society that they will be codified in formal laws and regulations.

(If, like me, you have interest in the evolution of legal frameworks, just take a look at development of the Napoleonic Code for a useful case study.)

For the principle of accountability to function in any meaningful sense, the identity of individuals and entities must be capable of being verified. Without identity, there can be no accountability.

Back to Metaverse and the technology that enables it. A number of recent examples illustrate the challenge associated with identity and accountability. Take the case of Derek Laufman, a comic artist whose artwork was stolen and converted into non-fungible tokens (‘NFTs’ for short – one of the blockchain-enabled building blocks that facilitates Metaverse). Those who bought the NFTs had no way of verifying whether the entity they were buying from was Laufman. As it happens, it wasn’t. More disturbingly, the UK’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) recently called out the emergence of online strip clubs in Metaverse - in this case via the VRChat app. A researcher established the presence of explicit material, grooming, racist insults and even a rape threat. The researcher had been able to set up a fake profile for a 13-year-old girl without any confirmation of identity.

Development of the loose collection of VR-enabled spaces and experiences that we call Metaverse continues at such a pace, and encompasses such a diversity of participants, that any meaningful notion of accountability and identity is currently just not achievable. This isn’t for lack of technical solutions or proven architectures for establishing and verifying identity - and by extension, accountability. Organisations such as Meta take the challenge very seriously indeed.  The challenge relates more to the (sometimes) questionable commitment demonstrated by the many different contributors to Metaverse – some of whom may uphold the concepts of accountability, identity and safety with varying degrees of seriousness. Metaverse has no Founding Fathers to draft a common Constitution. There will be no Napoleonic Code.

The message for the time being? Proceed with caution!