Woman complains she was virtually groped on Meta's Horizon Worlds, company says improving interface

Weeks after the launch of Meta’s Horizon Worlds, reports of a female beta tester alleging that she was groped on the virtual reality (VR) platform have surfaced. The beta tester reportedly told Meta that she had been groped by a stranger on Horizon Worlds adding that other people supported this behaviour. She also posted her experience in the Horizon Worlds beta testing group on Facebook.

“Sexual harassment is no joke on the regular internet, but being in VR adds another layer that makes the event more intense,” The Verge quoted the woman as saying. “Not only was I groped last night, but there were other people there who supported this behavior, which made me feel isolated in the Plaza (the virtual environment’s central gathering space),"

Earlier this month, Facebook announced the launch of Horizon Worlds, its virtual reality world of avatars, for users who are the age of 18 and above in the US and Canada. Facebook had noted that Horizon Worlds is the initial step to the metaverse. Horizon World enables users to socialise and play games with up to 20 other legless avatars.

After the woman’s post, Meta reportedly launched an internal investigation into the matter which according to reports took place on November 26. The woman wrote the post on December 1 and Horizon Worlds was launched for the public on December 9. Vivek Sharma, Meta's VP of Horizon, termed the incident as absolutely unfortunate and told The Verge that it was good feedback because he wanted to make the Safe Zone blocking tool "trivially easy and findable." Kristina Milian, a spokesperson for Meta, told MIT Technology Review that the company would continue to improve its user interface to understand how its tools are used and allow users to report issues easily and reliably.

As per reports, Horizon Worlds is nowhere close to a fully realised metaverse, where online experiences like chatting to a friend would eventually feel face-to-face thanks to VR. headsets. As of now, Horizontal Worlds app users will require users to have the proper equipment. In late October, Facebook rebranded itself to Meta that focuses on building the "metaverse," a shared virtual environment that it bets will be the successor to the mobile internet. The name change came shortly after criticisms from lawmakers and regulators over its market power, algorithmic decisions and the policing of abuses on its services.