The French government commissioned a group of researchers to study the essentialities of metaverse so that the country can take steps in that direction.
A 116-page long report about an experiment in the metaverse was published on Monday. The experiment was conducted in February 2022, set by the members of the French government, including the ministers for finance and culture as a part of the study.
The mission was led by Camille Francois, a researcher at Columbia University, and Adrien Basdevant, a lawyer of the Paris Bar alongside Remi Ranford, a researcher at France’s national institute for research in digital science and technology. The report highlighted the inadequacy and lack of expertise in the EU’s handling of its key crypto regulations. It stated that it should not be repeated while forming rules for the metaverse.
It also commented that if a country cannot be rapid in dismissing the metaverse it must try to develop a superset of virtual, augmented, and physical reality and try to regulate it instead. It further highlights the various opportunities and challenges that the metaverse poses and how France must approach it.
As per the researchers, the conceptualization of the virtual world comes before Meta, the tech giant and aspiring metaverse builder formerly known as Facebook. Talking about the difference of opinions about keeping the metaverse open to general or just limiting it to the groups, the report highlighted the impact that could occur if the virtual worlds backed by technology separate users from each other and the world around them.
France has always advocated an open, free, and secure internet and the same must be highlighted in the diplomatic bodies and negotiations on the future of communication technologies, said the researchers.
They also called on lawmakers to extend the scope of frameworks like the EU’s general data and protection regulation (GDPR) and digital services act (DSA) to include data collection and user protection in the metaverse, however, warned them against the mistakes previously committed.
The researchers while talking of the need for expert opinions in framing regulations to prevent them from turning into an industrialist lobby also commented on the MiCA regulation and the journey of the EU through it mentioning various testing plans launched in the period including the Transfer of Funds regulation (TFR), which identifies the sender from private digital wallets.