A Study of New Emerged Challenges for States to Rule the Cyberspace: Consequences of Platformization and Emergence of Metaverse

The present research aims to provide a critical analysis of the developments of the world wide web and cyberspace on the principle of territorial sovereignty. In this line, I study internet-based technological developments in changing the role, place, and authorities of governments to exercise laws in their territorial domains. The main question is: How do platformization and metaverse could increasingly challenge the rights of governments for sovereignty, and what are the main areas of their impact? The results show that the threats of the domination of big Western platforms can be reduced by developing a high-quality indigenous platform ecosystem, leading Iranian users to messengers administered by governments that are in good terms with Iran, diversifying foreign platforms, and supporting the production and sharing of indigenous contents based on the Iranian-Islamic culture, and localizing the data