Woman alleges ‘gang rape’ in Meta virtual world
- Woman describes how her avatar was sexually assaulted by male avatars in Horizon Worlds virtual game
- Game created by Meta, which envisions a virtual world where digital avatars connect using VR headsets
A woman in the UK wrote in a blog post on Medium that she experienced a real horror play out in the virtual game Horizon Worlds developed by Meta, formerly known as Facebook.
“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,” she wrote in the post from December.
She details watching her avatar get sexually assaulted by a handful of male avatars, who took photos and sent her comments like “don’t pretend you didn’t love it”.
The woman is vice-president of Metaverse Research for Kabuni Ventures, an immersive technology company. Meta released Horizon Worlds to everyone 18 years and older in the United States and Canada on December 9 after an invite-only beta test a year ago.
It features thousands of virtual worlds by creators and is free to download for all users, but Meta plans to monetise the game by facilitating e-commerce and advertising, according to CNBC, similar to how it profits from its social media ventures Facebook and Instagram.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request to comment.