Facebook’s rebranding as Meta has brought significant attention to the tech industry’s rollout of “metaverses”—and has raised questions about how this technology should be regulated. In a new insight, Technology and Innovation Policy Analyst Juan Londoño reviews the foundations of metaverses, their similarities to other available applications, and the aptitude of current regulations to manage content in metaverses.

Key points:

• A metaverse is a virtual world focused on social interaction, in which users are typically represented by an avatar and have the option to socialize with other users on the platform.
• The basic concept of metaverses is not new—many popular video games employing the same content that enables social interaction have existed for more than a decade—and so current regulations for videogames, social media, copyrighted music, and movies will likely suffice to cover the use of this technology.
• What is new is how users access content in metaverses, often using augmented and virtual reality headsets, which are facing a continuously changing regulatory environment.

Read the analysis