ECNL, Access Now, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have submitted a joint statement in response to a consultation on 'Virtual worlds (metaverses) - a vision for openness, safety and respect' by the European Commission.
Extended Reality (XR) technologies, including virtual and augmented reality, are the foundations of emerging digital environments, including the so-called metaverse. Like any other technology, we recognise that XR can have many positive impacts on our daily lives. However, our statement also raises concerns about the risks that XR technologies pose to human rights, particularly freedom of expression, assembly and association, privacy, due process, and non-discrimination.
Together, we urge the European Commission to place human rights standards at the center of XR developments and ensure that data generated and collected by XR systems is subject to strong protections. We urge governments to increase transparency around their use of XR, especially in sensitive areas such as criminal justice, national security, and counter-terrorism. We also call for the development of grassroots, rights-respecting technologies to provide alternatives to current surveillance-driven platforms.