Roblox suing YouTuber for 1.6 million dollars due to false terrorist threats

[Das_Unterstrich]

Summary

Ruben Sim, a ~800k subs YouTuber who criticized Roblox over years was sued by no other than Roblox itself for 1.65 million (yes, million) USD due to alleged false terrorist threats, glamorizing the 2018 shooter at YouTube HQ and a lot of trolling. How much from this is justified or just "revenge" from Roblox is still unknown.

 

Quotes

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Simon has a long history with the Roblox platform, from which he’s been banned for several years. He continues to access the platform, however, by “hacking” (= using VPNs) and using accounts created by other people.

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But most recently, Roblox lawyers said Simon posted “terrorist threats” that temporarily shut down the Roblox Developers Conference in San Francisco in October. According to the lawsuit, Simon and his “cybermob” followers discussed the YouTube headquarters shooting from April 2018, in which Simon reportedly said “wait until [someone] does it to Roblox.”

 

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The event was delayed and “forced into a temporary lockdown while local police and private security conducted a search to secure the facility,” according to the lawsuit. Roblox said it cost $50,000 to investigate and secure RDC after the incident.

 

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Also outlined in the lawsuit is Simon’s “targeted harassment” toward Roblox users and employees in-game and on social media.

My thoughts

My first thought was "you decided to annoy a big company and the company decided to annoy you back". Many people also say that Roblox is suing him only because of his (valid) criticism on the platform for years, such as the very one-sided/biased moderation and treatment of users. Additionally, Ruben Sim once exposed NobleDragon, the head of moderation, for following... interesting furry "artists" on his official Twitter account.

 

This all kinda reminds me about all the recent lawsuits from Take2 against GTA modders, which technically are valid, but absolutely useless, immoral and self-damaging in every way imaginable. I think that this mostly was just a "statement of power" by Roblox. They couldn't care less about those 1.6 million dollars, but for a single <800k subs YouTube channel this is a hell of a lot of money. For sure, real-life terrorist threats are nothing to joke around, especially as a bigger content creator, but other things like ban evasion (even mentioned above the uploading of inappropriate content) aren't really justifying this high sum of money. At the same time, since Roblox mentioned the threats directly as point #1 and #2 in their lawsuit, I can imagine that they have at least something. Only time can tell how this will end.

 

Sources

https://www.polygon.com/22799362/roblox-sues-banned-cybermob-leader-for-terrorizing-the-platform-its-developers

https://www.scribd.com/document/542082247/Roblox-vs-Ruben-Sim-lawsuit

https://youtu.be/y0BH8KXUQRQ

 

 

[IWannaBeUniqueMom]

How is this tech related?

[Lightwreather]

Another week, another lawsuit.

Sigh

[Taf the Ghost]

Why are they suing when it's an obvious criminal complaint? "Calling in a threat" is a crime in nearly all jurisdictions, so I don't get that part of the lawsuit. The Interference stuff, that would have legs. You're liable for disrupting someone else's business activities in certain ways. (Think of it as in the same context as Defamation.) I've actually wanted to see more people use those statues to defend themselves. Anyone on the receiving end of a witchhunt really should use those laws at a brutal club, so I do find it funny when a publisher is using it against someone in their community they clearly are at odds with.

A quick skim of the filing: Roblox needs to hire better lawyers. 

[Das_Unterstrich]

29 minutes ago, IWannaBeUniqueMom said:

How is this tech related?

It's more general internet news but imo still interesting, since a lawsuit at this level doesn't occur that often. 

[Vanderburg]

What is a "false terrorist threat"?

[CarlBar]

Who or what is Roblox?

[Sandro Linux]

9 minutes ago, CarlBar said:

Who or what is Roblox?

A game platform with many different games: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roblox

[poochyena]

6 hours ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

Another week, another lawsuit.

Sigh

Someone makes a terrorist threat and its the lawsuit you are concerned about?

 

5 hours ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Why are they suing when it's an obvious criminal complaint?

Thats clear, because "Roblox said it cost $50,000 to investigate and secure RDC after the incident.". So at the very least, they could argue being owed $50k.

3 hours ago, CarlBar said:

Who or what is Roblox?

One of the most popular games ever created. mostly aimed at teens and pre-teens

[IkeaGnome]

It sucks for him that he's in this position. 

However, people need to learn there's real world consequences for what you do online. If he's found guilty, hopefully it'll set a better precedent for this type of stuff, swatting, harassment online etc. 

6 hours ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Why are they suing when it's an obvious criminal complaint? "Calling in a threat" is a crime in nearly all jurisdictions

I think they're going civil on this for the damages in what it cost them. With any luck, there will be a criminal trial later. Regardless of if he did this or not, people need to start being held accountable for online actions.

[Spotty]

6 hours ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Why are they suing when it's an obvious criminal complaint? "Calling in a threat" is a crime in nearly all jurisdictions, so I don't get that part of the lawsuit.

They could still be proceeding with criminal charges separately.

Like Poochy said they're trying to recover the expenses they incurred as a result of those false terrorist threats they made. They're also likely including that in the civil case to further demonstrate the risk they pose to the company and their employees.

It's 50k for the police/security response to the false terrorist threats and another 100k they supposedly spent investigating and banning accounts used by him to circumvent his ban (though I'm not sure where they got that figure from, seems high to me).  They're also seeking 1.5M in punitive damages (basically deterrent to stop anyone else from doing it). It's not just the money they're seeking though; they're also seeking to have his social media accounts including YouTube account (which posts videos about harassing Roblox employees) shut down, and also have a court order preventing him from accessing the Roblox service, harassing any Roblox employees, or coming within 100ft of their office. Interestingly they're also requesting the revenue generated from their YouTube and patreon account. 

[IkeaGnome]

2 minutes ago, Spotty said:

they're also seeking to have his social media accounts including YouTube account (which posts videos about harassing Roblox employees) shut down, and also have a court order preventing him from accessing the Roblox service, harassing any Roblox employees, or coming within 100ft of their office. Interestingly they're also requesting the revenue generated from their YouTube and patreon account. 

Not a lawyer here, but it sounds like the normal "We want all this, but we'll actually settle for the $150k and court ordered restraining order to avoid dragging this out".

[Lightwreather]

1 hour ago, poochyena said:

Someone makes a terrorist threat and its the lawsuit you are concerned about?

Welllllll, It was just an observation (an unhelpful one, ik).

But yea, people do need to be held accountable.

Tho, I'm surprised, it's just Roblox and not yt as well, isn't that a violation of their ToS?

[Jeskspie]

8 hours ago, IWannaBeUniqueMom said:

How is this tech related?

Roblox = Technology

Youtube = Technology

 

 

[MultiGamerClub]

5 hours ago, CarlBar said:

Who or what is Roblox?

A game you can make almost any kind of game, kind of like your own sandbox world where tens of millions other people have done the exact same or coded a couple of million lines of code to make some truly awesome games.. Either its Torture simulator or battlefield games called color wars etc.. Sadly most old games are down the drain novadays and they removed the only free thing about it to buy clothes/cosmetics and their now doing sponsored games from known brands forcing kids to pay for virtual items..

 

Almost as if they learned from habbo back in the day or fortnite for skins.. Oh well.

[Quackers101]

there was something of a breach of EULA/ToS. Which could be interesting.

However, this case seems more on criminal/harassing behaviour and less about the more drama or technical issues.

 

like a "the big billion dollar company behind roblox sues a streamer", instead of a big company does what it should do.

[CarlBar]

Thanks for the responses. Will freely admit  they completely went under/over my radar. No idea why as it sounds exactly like the kind of thing i'd be interested in.

[DildorTheDecent]

>Roblox

>terror threat

 

All parties involved need to touch grass.

[Quackers101]

32 minutes ago, DildorTheDecent said:

All parties involved need to touch grass.

terror threats against real locations, but yes a lot of stupid ingame too.

[Arika]

4 hours ago, Spotty said:

Interestingly they're also requesting the revenue generated from their YouTube and patreon account. 

Hope this one doesn't happen, or it could set a very dangerous precedence

[TheEggComputer]

I never thought I would see this headline this morning, but here I am.

 

welp, grab popcorn everyone it’s time to watch another lawsuit