EU Metaverse Strategy Set to Examine Privacy, Competition and Rights

A policy paper next week won’t set legislative rules – but could point the way ahead on some key Web3 issues.

The European Commission’s metaverse strategy due next week is delayed and won’t have real teeth – but there are real policy concerns about how virtual worlds will cope with policy issues like property rights, technological standards and privacy.

First announced by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as part of an annual address made back in September, a policy paper on virtual worlds has been put off as long as it could be. EU commissioners are due to agree to it next Tuesday; any later and they’d be running into preparations for the next edition of the State of the EU speech.

The commission has previously suggested the proposal won’t be legislative, discussing the policy issues rather than proposing a formal bill – but it might point the way towards stronger action in future.

The metaverse strategy is “the start of something, it sets the agenda,” said Patrick Grady, editor of Brussels-based website and research initiative Metaverse EU. “Once the machine gets moving it doesn’t really stop.”

Grady, who also leads the technology practice at consultancy Fourtold, points to the commission’s 2018 strategy on Artificial Intelligence – which, though it did little more than promise a stakeholder alliance and reinterpreted liability rules, proved the portent of more to come, and an AI bill followed in 2021.

That brings risks as well as opportunities. A clear regulatory framework is often welcomed by the industry, but EU rules in areas such as AI have proved controversial. The example of the bloc’s recent Data Act – nominally concerned with governing information gathered by connected objects like cars or fridges, but which some Web3 proponents worry could effectively make smart contracts illegal – shows there’s always the chance of unintended consequences.

The commission has said the metaverse will need to embed “European values” – with officials specifying topics like discrimination, safety and data controls. A blog by Commissioner Thierry Breton, and a subsequent consultation from the commission, hinted at a more immediate EU fear – that Web3, like its predecessor, could be dominated by big players that squash competition.

That may include some familiar faces. Facebook has rebranded itself Meta (META) as it pivots towards a more immersive experience, and Apple’s (AAPL) move into the space could prove transformative.

At an April hearing, Meta’s EU Public Policy Director Aleksandra Kozik was cross-questioned by lawmakers interested in topics ranging from the impact of the technology on jobs, discrimination, and abuse by organized crime.

“The metaverse is not one single product that will be built by one company,” Kozik told members of the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee. “It is a constellation of platforms, technologies and products that will be built by many different stakeholders, by companies big and small.”

The commission may be skeptical of such analogies, given that it has often taken Meta to task for trying to be the brightest, if not the only, star in its firmament. Grammar might offer a clue as to the EU executive’s real thinking, Grady points out.

As with the internet, the whole point of the metaverse is that it’s a single unfragmented space – “siloed metaverses is almost the situation the EU’s trying to avoid,” Grady…

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/07/06/eu-metaverse-strategy-set-to-examine-privacy-competition-and-rights/

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