Roblox Corporation have issued a $1.6 million USD lawsuit against Ruben Sim; for “terrorist threats” and inciting a “cybermob” within Roblox.
As Polygon reports, the Roblox vs Ruben Sim lawsuit alleges that Ruben Sim (real name Benjamin Robert Simon) “commits and encourages unlawful acts designed to injure Roblox and its users.”
The YouTuber’s content revolves around Roblox and the games created by users therein. This mostly includes finding the bizarre or genuinely entertaining, and interacting with other players (whether that be taking part in bizzare role-play, or outright trolling). Sim has also warned viewers of scam Robux websites.
However, admins have notably locked down games Sim had promoted. One such game was due to “extreme blood,” prompting Sim to follow up with a video of games that violated those terms, yet remained untouched. He also excessively swore directly to Roblox admins in a voice chat (with top Roblox developers invited).
While Sim had used alternate accounts before, reportedly having been banned from the game for years, all of Sim’s accounts were then banned. Sim points out in his video that the voice chat is for those 13 and over, none of the other people present sounded too young to hear cursing, and those who were not using voice chat themselves would not have been able to hear him.
Sim had also been critical of Roblox moderation in the past. He highlighted how it was both too relaxed considering how young some players were (such as the aforementioned scammers), yet also hypocritical in enforcing other terms even when a younger gamer could not be present.
Nonetheless Sim evaded his ban yet again, and even begun to speak to players in China. In those videos, Sim highlights how fans had sent him alternate accounts, and how he utilized a VPN to further mask his identity.
The lawsuit accuses Sim of using accounts created by other people, “hacking,” targeted harassment of users and Roblox staff in-game and on social media, using racist and homophobic slurs, sexual harassment, and uploading photos of Adolf Hitler to the game. He was also accused of posting “terrorist threats,” and orchestrating a “cybermob.” These come from an incident in October 2018.
Roblox lawyers claim that Sim and his cybermob followers had discussed the YouTube headquarters shooting in April 2018. Simon allegedly stated “wait until [someone] does it to Roblox.”
During the Roblox Developers Conference in San Francisco, Sim allegedly tweeted that San Francisco police were “searching for notorious Islamic Extremist” at the event, along with his fans allegedly posting other fake threats and news of an imminent attack. These alleged tweets are claimed to have been deleted.
This prompted the event to be temporarily shut down as police and private security searched the building; costing Roblox Corporation $50,000 USD. The $1.6 million USD lawsuit is suing Sims over violating breach of contract, fraud, “Tortious Interference with Prospective Economic Relations,” and two counts of violating computer-based fraud acts.
Roblox is available and free-to-play on Windows PC (via the Microsoft Store), Xbox One, Android, and iOS.
