Harassment in the Metaverse

Tech for Good Live

Welcome to Tech for Good Live. In this episode we are talking about carbon footprints, how far companies go to “brag”, Meta making plans to tackle harassment and charities jumping into NFTs.

Hera Hussain is on hosting duties and she’s joined by Greg Ashton and Dama Sathianathan.

Our special guest this week is Catherine Woodiwiss, former journalist who is now a designer researching selfies & self-construction.

Discussed in this episode:

Stat of the week (GREG)

By 2015 the richest 10% were responsible for 49% of the world's carbon emissions:

Carbon footprint gap’ between rich and poor expanding, study finds. - The Guardian

And companies are exaggerating their progress:

Climate change: Top companies exaggerating their progress - study - BBC News

Charity news of the week

WWF received backlash for using NFTs for fundraising:

WWF-UK faces backlash over plan to sell NFTs to fund conservation work - Climate Home News

The Internet is just investment banking now - The Atlantic

Tech news of the week

From the company who perfected harassment at a distance, Meta/Facebook introducing distancing to 'prevent' harassment in the metaverse:

Meta is adding a ‘personal boundary’ to VR avatars to stop harassment - The Verge

Sounds like their vision of the metaverse isn't translating into dollars though:

For the first time in its history, Facebook is in decline. Has the tech giant begun to crumble? - The Guardian

Oh and they might turn their services off of they don't get their way in Europe:

Meta (FB) May Shut Down Facebook, Instagram in Europe Over GDPR Data Rules - Bloomberg

Nice of the week x2!

Wingspan Boardgame

Despite Don’t Look Up’s doomsdaying about tech billionaires (and governments, media) … NASA scientists are working hard successfully stop asteroids, actually!

The quest to avert an asteroid apocalypse is going surprisingly well - Vox

And finally…

Nuclear fusion is getting closer:

Scientists break through major milestone in harnessing fusion energy - Independent

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