Who Will Make the Rules for the Metaverse?

Executive Summary

The future of online platforms is a pastiche of the digital platforms we know today – Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, etc. – enhanced by virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and a chilling expansion of the invasion of personal privacy. Called the metaverse (a term combining “meta” meaning “transcending” and “universe”), the new platforms create a video game-like pseudo- world – this time, however, it is no game, but personally identifiable avatars interacting with each other. The internet platforms we have experienced thus far have been an observational experience that principally harnessed text and video. The metaverse is an experience of participatory immersion in which real world people, problems, and patterns come to life.