Meta intends to charge almost half of its value for selling items in Horizon Worlds, and a former Facebook employee is concerned about human rights violations in the metaverse.
Meta plans to charge a 47.5% commission for selling items of clothing or interiors, writes CNBC, citing a corporate representative. Earlier, the parent organization of the popular social networking site announced that it had begun testing a process to monetize Horizon Worlds items.
The commission amount will include:
- 30% for using the Meta Quest Store VR headset;
- 17.5% for using the Horizon Worlds virtual reality platform.
The community’s reaction to Horizon Worlds’ “embarrassing” amount of commission was single-minded. Twitter users didn’t miss an opportunity to remind Mark Zuckerberg of his criticism of Apple’s 30% high fees and assurances that his team is doing everything necessary “so authors can get more,” as quoted in Zuckerberg’s words in the thread.
Amid the recent announcement of Meta’s plans to release Zuck Bucks for the metaverse, the fee amount for Horizon Worlds is considered exorbitantly high by enthusiasts.
Politico previously reported that former Meta Product Manager Frances Haugen had expressed concern about the possible transfer of Facebook user engagement algorithms to the metaverse, leading to a breach of privacy.
These concerns are related to the fact that the metaverse technologies allow collecting a large amount of data about users. Everything from sensors installed in houses and on streets to microphones and eye contact could be involved. “You don’t really have a choice now on whether or not you want Facebook spying on you at home,” concerns Haugen.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy organization, agrees with her worries, saying that such real-time collection of personal information could be not only a threat to one’s personal privacy but also a modern tool for surveillance. Previously, the organization has already expressed concerns that personal data collected in virtual reality can violate human rights.
Nevertheless, the user base of the Horizon Worlds virtual reality platform from Meta continues to grow — the number of active users has already exceeded 300,000.
