By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission on Tuesday outlined a plan to take the lead in the metaverse – shared virtual worlds accessible via the internet – and prevent big tech from dominating a nascent sphere that could boost economic growth.
The EU move comes as Facebook owner Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Apple are working on metaverse products or services, raising concerns that the companies are gaining an unfair advantage over their smaller rivals.
The EU executive said its initiative aims to reflect EU fundamental values and rights and create an open and interoperable metaverse, an area where it estimates the global market size will exceed €800 billion. by 2030, up from 27 billion last year.
The program includes bringing creators, media companies and others together to create an industry ecosystem, setting up regulatory sandboxes to help companies test the metaverse, and rolling out skills development programs as well. than virtual public services.
“We need to put people at the center and shape it in accordance with our EU digital rights and principles, to address the risks of privacy or misinformation. We want to ensure that Web 4.0 becomes an open digital environment , secure, trustworthy, fair and inclusive for all,” Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.
Last week, she said there are no plans to regulate the metaverse at this time, but expects the series of rules enacted in recent years, including privacy, market power and next regulation on artificial intelligence, applies to the new field.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee)