Woman alleges rape in Meta’s virtual world

A woman has detailed a horrible experience in which her avatar was virtually sexually harassed and gang-raped by other Metaverse users. Nina Jane Patel, a mother, detailed the entire incident in a Medium blog post, claiming that everything happened within seconds of her entering the virtual world. She said that she was verbally and sexually assaulted by 3-4 male avatars with male voices within 60 seconds of joining, who effectively, but virtually, gang-raped her avatar and snapped photos. The 43-year-old went on to say that she observed her avatar being sexually raped by a bunch of male avatars, who photographed her and told her things like “don’t pretend you didn’t love it.” Anyone who logged into Facebook’s ‘metaverse,’ an online world in which users’ avatars meet and chat, as well as tour a fast expanding network of virtual sites such as cities, country scenes, or cafes, could see the torment firsthand. The London-based woman works for Kabuni Ventures, an immersive technology firm, as vice president of Metaverse Research.