The Roblox Corporation has filed a lawsuit against Benjamin Robert Simon a.k.a. Ruben Sim for harassment againstRobloxplayers and creators. Simon is accused of leading a “cybermob” and propagating terrorist threats for years on the platform.The Roblox Companyis looking to collect $1.6 million in damages and is suing Simon for breach of contract, fraud, and on four other counts.
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday, November 23 and alleges that Simon encouraged “unlawful acts designed to injureRobloxand its users.” Simon had recently posted terrorist threats that shut down a Roblox Developers Conference in San Francisco this past October. He had gathered together a sort of “cybermob” and made comments about the YouTube headquarters shooting from back in April 2018, insuating that something similar would happen toRobloxand its creators. Similarly, Simon has made other misleading threats such as the one to RDC 2021, where he warned workers to not come to work the next day, suggesting the San Francisco police department were searching for an unnamed Islamic extremist. This forced RDC 2021 into a temporary lockdown while police used resources to scour the facility looking for any danger. The Roblox Company claims that it cost $50,000 to investigate the misleading information.
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In addition to this Simon was banned many years ago, having been active on the service since around 2013. He has since found his way back in numerous times by way of hacking accounts created by other people.Robloxeven has a group of moderators dedicated to surveilling him and deleting any suspicious accounts he takes a hold of. This has led to over 100 accounts being deleted as well as trying to IP ban and “poison ban” Simon on numerous occasions. Simon’s original ban was for his harassment of users and for the use of racist and homophobic slurs as well as uploading photos of Adolf Hitler and instances of sexual harassment.
This isn’t the first timeRobloxhas been mired in controversy as the company recently had to ban a number ofRobloxusers who were attempting to recreate the 2019 mass shootingof Christchurch in New Zealand.
As a company that is now the biggest it has ever been (worth more than Ubisoft and Take-Two combined), it might be time to start implementing harsher systems in place to root out troublemakers from harassing users, especially since the audience skews younger. However,The Roblox Company has declared that it is putting much of its focus on attracting an older audience, so with that will come more issues similar to the one with Benjamin Simon.
Robloxis available now on PC, Xbox One, and mobile devices.
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