Metaverse must be one of the hot topics in 2022, we are yet sceptical about its destiny and Meta is facing many antitrust cases regarding its most-invested commercial activity.
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Firstly, Meta’s Report on 4th Quarter and Full Year 2022 Results
On February 1, 2023, Meta released its fourth quarter and full year 2022 results. The revenue report showed the loss of more than $13.7 billion in its “Reality Labs” unit, which houses its metaverse efforts. Recently, the public has been very sceptical about the destiny of metaverse as (i) its headset Quest Pro, combining the immersiveness of virtual reality (VR) with the real world, is expensive without tracked hand controllers and (ii) it is uncertain to adopt the VR and augmented reality (AR) in the workplace and private life.
Meanwhile, to reassure the investor, Meta added in its Report that “substantially all of our capital expenditures continue to support the Family of Apps,” referring to Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp and define its metaverse efforts as the risks associated with new products and changes.
Sources:
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/30/tech/meta-metaverse-transition/index.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/01/tech/meta-facebook-earnings
Secondly, US federal judge allowed Meta to acquire a VR startup
According to the Wall Street Journal report, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California denied the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)’s request for an injunction blocking the proposed merger between Meta Platforms Inc. and VR Within Unlimited. The judge’s opinion is not yet published, meanwhile, Facebook parent company claimed that the FTC brought a flawed antitrust case. The case was built based on an uncommon theory of competitive harm on potential future competition in nascent commercial activities.
Therefore, Meta has asked FTC’s Chair Lina Khan to recuse herself from the administrative trial process. However, by voting 2-1, along partisan lines, members of the FTC rejected this complaint from Meta. Then, that allows her to participate in the legal case in question according to its order released on Thursday February 2, 2023. Nonetheless, it is not clear if the FTC would continue with the administrative case against the company. A trial in the in-house court is scheduled to begin on February 13, 2023. We are looking forward to the case hearing to learn the judge’s opinion which will potentially be an interesting precedent in the U.S. antitrust law which was criticised by Ms. Khan that it failed to restrain Amazon.
Sources:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ftc-loses-antitrust-challenge-to-facebook-parent-meta-11675272525
Third, crime in the metaverse
According to the BBC’s report, interviewing Interpol Secretary General J. Stock and Executive Director of technology and innovation, M. Oberoi, it seems difficult to determine the crimes in metaverse by using the definition of crimes in physical space. For example, although there have been reported cases of sexual harassment, it hard to say that can still be called a crime in the metaverse or not. It requires the lawmakers and enforcements to learn more and use the metaverse and become aware.
According to the Interpol, cybercrime is international by nature, thus, it is not subject to any specific national or regional jurisdiction. It is easy to say that illegal and harmful in the physical world should be illegal in the virtual synthetic world, but how to make the law and apply it and which social standards and norms we should use. There are a lot of questions without answers at this moment.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64501726
For more about Meta Platforms Inc.: https://www.astraiagear.com/2023/01/10/facebook-meta-new-fair-and-equitable-digital-advertising-system/