YouTuber Benjamin Robert Simon, also known as Ruben Sim on Roblox, is being sued by The Roblox Corporation for inciting a “cybermob” that actively attacks the safe space that the game wants to be for young gamers.
Simon is banned on Roblox, and has been for a few years now, but he continually circumvents these efforts through hacks and using other players’ accounts. Polygon reports that his infractions include harassment, using racist and homophobic slurs, sexual harassment and uploading photos of Adolf Hitler. The majority of his Roblox content is viewable on his YouTube channel and Patreon presence, the latter of which earns him $600 for every new video uploaded to the platform.
In the lawsuit that was filed two days ago in the state of California, Roblox’s lawyers state that Simon is “the leader of a ‘cybermob’ that with malice, fraud, and oppression, commits and encourages unlawful acts designed to injure Roblox and its users.” A selection of these acts are listed: “posting false and misleading terrorist threats,” “glamorizing the April 3, 2018 active shooter and murder at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California,” “engaging in sexual conversation with users,” “attempting to upload a sex game,” and “cyberbullying and harassing Roblox employees and executives.”
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Regarding the referenced shooting in 2018, Simon threatened to repeat these events at Roblox’s San Mateo offices. Furthermore, the Roblox Developers Conference of this year was jeopardised when Simon pretended there was a terrorist threat at the venue. “‘BREAKING: San Francisco Police are currently searching for notorious Islamic Extremist Julius Al Mohammad. If you see this individual at RDC please call 911 immediately,’” posted Simon to his Twitter account, adding an image “purporting to depict the fictitious ‘Islamic Extremist’ as having posted a YouTube video titled ‘SOMEONE BLOW UP ROBLOX NOW!’”
The Roblox Corporation is therefore looking for $1.6 million in damages for “attorneys’ fees, costs, interest, and injunctive relief barring Defendant Simon from engaging in similar unlawful and injurious activity.” In comparison to the market value of Roblox, this is small change, as the company is worth about six Bethesdas. Not the place in America but the developer of Skyrim and Fallout and that lot.
"It's really a once-in-a-decade company,” said Neil Rimer, partner at Index Ventures, in an interview with Bloomberg. “Great companies continue to grow in value, [and] the growth [in Roblox] was there before [the pandemic], and the growth will be there after." It’s no wonder, then, that the higher ups want to uproot any hindrance.
Featured Image Credit: The Roblox CorporationTopics: Youtube