US court permanently bans Roblox YouTuber accused of staff harassment and terrorist threats
Must also pay $150,000 in damages.
A California court has permanently banned a Roblox player after he was sued by the game's developer for allegedly harassing staff and making terrorist threats to disrupt official events.
The Roblox Corporation initially launched legal action against Roblox YouTuber and content creator Benjamin Robert Simon, known as Ruben Sim, last November, accusing him of leading a "cybermob" against the platform and using "malice, fraud, and oppression" to commit unlawful acts intended to "injure Roblox and its users".
The lawsuit claimed Simon, who has been officially banned from Roblox for years for alleged terms of service violations, had repeatedly circumvented his ban to access the game, where he was accused of sexually harassing users, singling out individuals and groups for ridicule and abuse, using racial and homophobic slurs, attempting to upload a nude image of himself, attempting to upload a sex game, prolific profanity, and more.
Simon was also accused of cyber-bulling and harassing Roblox employees and executives - including making libellous personal accusations - and of posting fake terrorist threats to discourage players from attending in-person and online events. One terrorist threat, focussed on last year's Roblox Developers Conference in California, saw the event temporarily shut down by police - a move said to have cost the developer "over $50,000".
Simon's behaviour, the lawsuit argued, interfered with the Roblox Corporation's "existing and prospective economic relations and violates both federal and state computer crime laws". As such, the company sought $1,650,000 USD in damages, alongside injunctive relief to prevent Simon from engaging in similar activities in the future.
And now, some two months on, the court has shared its findings (as spotted by ArsTechnica), laying out the terms of an injunction to formally prevent Simon from accessing any portion of the Roblox platform that requires an account, from violating the Roblox terms of service, from going within 100 feet of any Roblox office, facility, or residence, and from making or publishing content that encourages or glamorises unauthorised access to the Roblox platform or that encourages or glamorises engaging in conduct that violates the Roblox terms of service.
Simon is also ordered to remove any posts, videos, or audio files that violate the terms of the injunction and to pay the Roblox Corporation $150,000 in damages - significantly less than the $1.6m it initially sought.
The Roblox Corporation has, of course, come in for considerable criticism itself in recent times. The gaming platform, which is primarily used by children and is now estimated to be worth $45 billion, has been accused of exploiting young users developing for the platform, as detailed in a People Make Games video report last year.