The Regulation of Metaverse through Crime of Insult and Libel

With the popularization of decentralized Metaverse communities and the functions within it in future, the stealthiness of information sources and data flow will be greatly enhanced. Besides, in an entertaining and commercial environment, the media will be more diverse and the access to information will be more convenient, fast and comprehensive. Moreover, based on its purpose, the Metaverse is better related to the individual rights and interests of property and personality. Hence, individual’s reputation and portrait would become more important in future life and business communication. Therefore, crime of insult and libel, one of crimes that seriously violate the right of personality, would probably break through the infrequent crime zone in practice and turn into one of popular crimes when the Metaverse becomes widely known like Internet. In our research, premised on the theories about Metaverse and domestic criminal law studies on crime of insult and libel, we analyzed the impact and shock towards legal interest, subject and objective constitutive elements of the considered crime. Finally, we concluded the path of regulation through three aspects: they are explaining existing concept and theory, promulgating Judicial Interpretation includes emerging criminal acts, and formulating and enacting new context in the criminal law conform to the trend of misdemeanor.