Exploring the Darkverse: a multi-perspective analysis of the negative societal impacts of the Metaverse

Dwivedi, Yogesh K, Kshetri, Nir, Hughes, Laurie, Rana, Nripendra P, Baabdullah, Abdullah M, Kar, Arpan Kumar, Koohang, Alex, Ribeiro-Navarrete, Samuel, Bele, Nina, Balakrishnan, Janarthanan, Basu, Sriparna, Behl, Abhishek, Davies, Gareth H, Duto, Vincent, Dwivedi, Rohita, Evans, Leighton, Felix, Reto, Foster-Fletche, Richard, Giannakis, Mihalis, Gupta, Ashish, Hinsch, Chris, Jain, Animesh, Pate, Nina Jane, Jung, Timothy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8594-6641, Juneja, Satinder, Kamra, Qeis, Mohamed AB, Sanjar, Pandey, Neeraj, Papagiannidis, Savvas, Raman, Ramakrishnan, Rauschnabel, Philipp A, Tak, Preeti, Taylor, Alexandra, tom Dieck, M Claudia, Viglia, Giampaolo, Wang, Yichuan and Yan, Meiyi (2023) Exploring the Darkverse: a multi-perspective analysis of the negative societal impacts of the Metaverse. Information Systems Frontiers, 25 (5). pp. 2071-2114. ISSN 1387-3326

Preview

Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

The Metaverse has the potential to form the next pervasive computing archetype that can transform many aspects of work and life at a societal level. Despite the many forecasted benefits from the metaverse, its negative outcomes have remained relatively unexplored with the majority of views grounded on logical thoughts derived from prior data points linked with similar technologies, somewhat lacking academic and expert perspective. This study responds to the dark side perspectives through informed and multifaceted narratives provided by invited leading academics and experts from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. The metaverse dark side perspectives covered include: technological and consumer vulnerability, privacy, and diminished reality, human-computer interface, identity theft, invasive advertising, misinformation, propaganda, phishing, financial crimes, terrorist activities, abuse, pornography, social inclusion, mental health, sexual harassment and metaverse-triggered unintended consequences. The paper concludes with a synthesis of common themes, formulating propositions, and presenting implications for practice and policy.