Ruling AKP to launch study on Metaverse

ANKARA

At a meeting of a decision-making body of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) earlier this week, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and party officials discussed the virtual world Metaverse, with the president demanding a comprehensive study on the matter.

Erdoğan said that the study should also cover other key issues such as cryptocurrencies and social media and proposed that an online forum should be organized in which he would also take part.

“This is a delicate matter and should be looked at thoroughly,” the president told AKP officials, referring to Metaverse.

At the planned online forum, the economic aspects of Metaverse, cryptocurrencies and social media are expected to be discussed.

The focus, however, will be on how trading is conducted on Metaverse. Senior officials at the AKP’s central executive committee meeting noted that foreign investors have bought the House of Virgin Mary, in the Selcuk district of the western province of İzmir, as well as some other museums, warning that those may create problems.

Metaverse is becoming popular in Turkey. Thousands of virtual lands in Turkey, most of them in Istanbul, have already been sold a game-based metaverse platform, which some believe represents the future of the internet.

The metaverse is a network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social connection, which a user will be able to enter via VR glasses.

At the meeting, officials also discussed the reactions on social media platforms to journalist Sedef Kabaş and singer Sezen Aksu. Kabaş was arrested last week for “insulting the president” after her comments on a private TV channel. Aksu was criticized by some circles for the lyrics of a song which was actually written five years ago.

According to party officials, during the TV program Kabaş appeared on, some 380,000 tweets, which mentioned the journalist, were posted and those messages were viewed 18 million times.

“We have seized the momentum here to set the agenda. We should maintain it,” Erdoğan told party officials.