Interpol launches first global police metaverse at General Assembly in Delhi

The fully operational Interpol metaverse can be accessed by all accessed by all 195 member countries

Interpol, the global police organisation, has entered the metaverse. The fully operational Interpol metaverse was unveiled at the surprise session of its 90th General Assembly, held in New Delhi.

At present, users can tour the virtual facsimile of the Interpol General Secretariat headquarter in Lyon, France. The lack of physical and geographical boundaries allows users all over the world to interact with officers through their avatars and take immersive training courses in forensic investigations as well as other policing abilities. This metaverse, provided through the Interpol Secure Cloud, assures neutrality.

It can be accessed by all 195 member countries and offers benefits like remote work, networking, collecting and preserving evidence from crime scenes, and delivering training.

Interpol secretary general Jürgen Stock said, "For many, the Metaverse seems to herald an abstract future, but the issues it raises are those that have always motivated INTERPOL – supporting our member countries to fight crime and making the world, virtual or not, safer for those who inhabit it," adding, "We may be entering a new world, but our commitment remains the same."

In a follow-up panel, Interpol also announced the creation of an Expert Group on the Metaverse, which would represent concerns of law enforcement on a global stage and ensure that the new virtual world is secure by design. With this, the global organisation seeks to be the new sheriffs of the virtual.

Does the metaverse need policing?

Neal Stephenson, in his 1992 science-fiction novel, Snow Crash, coined the term "metaverse" - where humans interact with each other through programmable avatars. The idea of a virtual world was also explored by Steven Spielberg in his film Ready Player One, an adaptation of Ernest Cline's novel. Now, this concept is fast becoming a part of our everyday reality as the metaverse is touted to be the next step in internet development. Technology research firm Gartner has posited that by 2026 one in every four people will spend at least an hour a day in the metaverse to work, shop, study, and socialise.

Social media giant Facebook's parent company Meta announced plans last year to massively invest in the metaverse, where users can interact through avatars using augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) headsets. However, Meta's new immersive platform Horizon Worlds quickly faced criticism with allegations of harassment and lack of moderation. Interpol anticipates that as the number of metaverse users grows, more possible crimes will emerge.

Read | This is life in the metaverse

The global law enforcement organisation has pointed out "crimes against children, data theft, money laundering, financial fraud, counterfeiting, ransomware, phishing, and sexual assault and harassment" as some of the potential threats it has already identified. They pose additional challenges for law enforcement since acts that are criminalized in the real world might not be crimes in the virtual world.

SumOfUs - a nonprofit advocacy organisation and online community that campaigns to hold corporations accountable - reported that a 21-year-old woman had been gang-raped virtually within an hour of being on the metaverse. When avatars are touched in the virtual world, the hand controls vibrate, which creates "a very disorienting and even disturbing physical experience during a virtual assault," the report states. However, as the subject of the virtual rape reasoned to herself, her avatar is not "a real body."

Currently, Horizon Worlds has internal mechanisms to prevent such instances from occurring. A Meta spokesperson told Refinery29, "We want everyone to feel safe on our platforms and we don’t allow this behaviour in Horizon Worlds. Personal Boundary is on by default at almost four feet for non-friends to make it easier to avoid unwanted interactions, and we don’t recommend turning off safety features for people you do not know. We want everyone using our products to have a good experience and easily find the tools that can help in situations like these, so we can investigate and take action."

However, law enforcement and laws are currently playing catch-up with the immense leaps in technology that has occurred over the past years. Carrie Goldberg, a victim's rights attorney told the Vice Media-owned outlet, "Needless to say, we are in an entirely new world, and the law has not caught up," explaining that many who indulge in virtual abuse get away with it since the laws to hold them accountable do not exist.

Way before Interpol's metaverse launch, Hal Lonas, chief technology officer of Trulioo, had predicted to PYMNTS in 2021 that there would be something akin to the international law enforcement organisation for the virtual. "Think of it like an international police force or a compliance committee or bureaucracy that will have to exist," he said, adding, "I see it being like outer space, declared international territory or maybe like Antarctica. I think the same thing will have to happen for the metaverse. We'll have to have international agreements on what goes and what doesn't go there, and some kind of oversight body to look at it."

At the time, he also explained why Interpol would need to police the metaverse, with a focus on payments transitioning from the real to the virtual.

"There are goods and services purchased today with real money from this reality, and then taken into the [gaming ecosystem], where it's spent on goods and services. I think as that becomes more prevalent, you could imagine actual pools of value and money in a metaverse that become untraceable or unknowable," Lonas said.

PYMNTS AML/KYC Tracker also notes that it is not difficult for criminals to set up virtual enterprises on gaming platforms where they convert money from illegal or fraudulent activities into in-game currency.

Cybercrime has been on the rise in recent times as per Interpol's Global Crime Trend report. They expect ransomware crimes to increase significantly in the next three to five years. The World Economic Forum has also partnered with Interpol, Meta, and Microsoft, to govern the metaverse, taking cognizance of the rise of virtual infractions.

Interpol chief, Stock, said "Understanding and pre-empting crime trends is an absolute bedrock of policing," and joining the metaverse is a step in that direction. The organisation's Executive Director of Technology and Innovation, Madan Oberoi, echoed these thoughts, saying "By identifying these risks from the outset, we can work with stakeholders to shape the necessary governance frameworks and cut off future criminal markets before they are fully formed," adding, "Only by having these conversations now can we build an effective response."