Need common strategy to tackle ‘dynamite to Metaverse’, ‘hawala to crypto’: Amit Shah at G20 Conference

Speaking at the inaugural session of the 'G20 Convention on Crime & Safety within the age of NFTs, AI & Metaverse', which is being held from 13-14 July in Gurugram, the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, emphasised the urgent need to establish collaboration both at the national as well as the international levels to tackle online harassment to fake news and misinformation campaigns and creating cyber resilience.

About 900 participants from G20 nations and domain experts from India and across the globe are attending the two-day event.

Under the leadership of PM @narendramodi Ji India has taken giant strides in empowering digital security systems. Today addressed the 'G 20 Conference on Crime and Security in the Age of NFTs, AI & Metaverse'. The conference will play a transformative role in building a global… pic.twitter.com/nVSHAa5ZYE

— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) July 13, 2023

Security challenges transcended to Metaverse from dynamite and to crypto from hawala 

The Home Minister stated, "It is essential to strengthen the capabilities of nations and international organisations to deal with new and emerging, traditional and non-traditional challenges, including terrorism, terror financing, radicalisation, narco, narco-terror links, and misinformation in a better way."

He further mentioned, “The transformation of our security challenges from ‘dynamite to metaverse’, and from ‘conversion of hawala to cryptocurrency’ is a matter of concern for the countries of the world, and all of us together have to devise a common strategy against it.”

Terrorists using virtual assets to finance transactions

Shah mentioned that the terrorists are finding new ways to spread violence and raise funds. In fact, they now have turned to virtual assets to finance illicit transactions. He further mentioned that it is the need of the hour to track these activities running on Dark Net that use various virtual assets and find solutions for the same.

He added that so far, the G20 focussed on digital transformation and its importance from an economic perspective. However, the summit will now also aim at staying ahead in these times of AI, NFTs, and Metaverse as well as in other emerging technologies.

Emphasis on responsible use of AI

With the invention of ChatGPT, AI has taken the world by storm. However, nations and lawmakers all over the world have urged for its regulated use. 

Amit Shah during the summit stated, “During the six sessions of the two-day conference, there will be a meaningful discussion on the International Cooperation Framework in subjects such as Internet Governance, Security of Digital Public Infrastructure, Legal and Regulatory Issues related to Digital Ownership, and Responsible use of AI and International Cooperation Framework for Dark Net.”

Metaverse becomes real

During the event, the Home Minister said that the Metaverse, which was once a fictional topic, has now stepped into the real world. Apart from creating several innovative ideas, it has also helped in setting up new opportunities like training, etc. for terrorist organisations. 

He added, “This will make it easier for terrorist organisations to select and target vulnerable people and prepare material according to their vulnerabilities. The Metaverse also creates opportunities for true imitation of a user’s identity, known as deep-fakes, and, by using better biometric information about individuals, criminals will be able to impersonate users and steal their identities.”