A group of researchers from the SumOfUs NGO has experienced assorted abuse and violence on the Meta-owned Horizon Worlds metaverse platform. A fresh report from the group, titled ‘Metaverse: another cesspool of toxic content’, revealed that their virtual reality experience involved racial abuse, gun violence and even rape.
The report bemoaned a lack of moderation on the platform, describing it as a “breeding ground for harmful content.”
“Within a few minutes of logging into the platform, SumOfUs researchers experienced homophobic slurs, gun violence (including a shoot out at a house party), drugs laid out on a table, and a user stalking the researcher and following her into different worlds,” the report read. The NGO backed-up its allegations by posting in-game footage of the behavior.