An expensive virtual party in the European Union’s metaverse is expected to lure young people into politics. But only six people showed up.
It should have been a huge virtual party to get young people excited about their politics, but the plan failed spectacularly: just six people showed up for the European Union’s Metaverse event. The EU Commission’s foreign aid department spent €387,000 to create the Metaversum scene – an online place where people can join a virtual concert, meet others and learn about the EU.
The event, with its own virtual DJs playing music, is expected to be particularly attractive to young people. And along the way, those in charge wanted to enlighten them on EU development policy. But a correspondent for the international development site Devex discovered that he was almost alone at the virtual party.
Alone
“I’m here at the EU foreign aid department metaverse gala concert. After initial confusing conversations with the five or so people who came, I’m alone,” Vince Chadwick wrote on Twitter. There would be enough warning signs.
Only 44 people liked the virtual party’s online promotional video, which featured futuristic avatars swaying to pulsing house music. Metaverse is a new social media platform featuring online virtual meeting rooms from Meta, the company that also powers Facebook.
According to the Commission, the event’s target audience is young people aged 18 to 35 “who describe themselves as neutral towards the EU and not particularly interested in political issues”. Brussels unveiled the Metaverse in mid-October, but had trouble finding support – even from those working on it in the EU department, reports The Age.
“Metaverse is digital garbage”
Devex reports that a European Commission source has described the metaverse in particular as “digital junk”. Consequently, the fiasco was met with derision by several EU observers.
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“It’s a farce that an EU institution feels the need to spend hundreds of thousands of euros on this nonsense,” said Jacob Kirkegaard of the German Marshall Fund think tank. “Anyone in their right mind knows that the Metaverse is a failure.” In response to the criticism, an EU spokesperson admitted: “The Metaverse does not live up to our expectations. In its current state, its user interface is not friendly and attractive enough.”
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