A woman said that she was sexually harassed by a stranger in the virtual world Meta’s Horizon Worlds, the verge first reported the news.
Horizon World allows players to socialize and play games with over 20 other avatars. On the official Facebook group’s “beta testers”, the pseudonymous woman said that her virtual character was groped by another player, and other users cherished the incident, according to a report by The Verge.
“Sexual harassment is no joke on the regular internet, but being in VR adds another layer that makes the event more intense,” the woman wrote. She said that incident occurred in the Plaza, one of the main areas that people gather, per The Verge.
On December 9, Meta launched its beta version of Horizon Worlds to users over 18 in North America. The virtual world is set to look similar to Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of the metaverse.
Meta launched an internal investigation following the woman’s post, according to MIT Technology Review. The incident occurred on November 26th, and the woman wrote the post on December 1, according to the publication. According to Meta, the woman hadn’t turned on a safety feature designed to prevent harassment on the platform.
