Roblox suing controversial content creator for leading a "cybermob" against platform

The Roblox Corporation is suing content creator Benjamin Robert Simon for leading a "cybermob" against the platform.

The lawsuit was filed in a California court on Tuesday, as reported by Polygon. Roblox is seeking $1.6m in damages.

Simon, better known online as Ruben Sim, has already been banned from the platform for several years for using racist and homophobic slurs, sexual harassment, and uploading images of Adolf Hitler, according to the lawsuit.

Roblox lawyers claim the creator is "the leader of a 'cybermob' that with malice, fraud, and oppression, commits and encourages unlawful acts designed to injure Roblox and its users".

That includes "repeatedly circumventing the technological barriers erected to block Defendant Simon from accessing the Roblox platform after he was permanently banned from the platform and instructing and encouraging others to do the same."

Particularly prominent are accusations of terrorism. Simon is accused of "posting false and misleading terrorist threats to discourage Roblox users from participating in in-person and online events."

An incident occured in San Francisco in October this year, where Simon posted false messages on Twitter that police were searching for a notorious Islamic extremist at the Roblox Developers Conference, sparking police activity and a temporary shutdown of the conference, costing the developer $50,000.

Simon also glamorised the April 3, 2018 active shooter and murder at YouTube's California headquarters and threatened a similar event at Roblox's nearby headquarters. He has since deleted many of his tweets.

The lawsuit against Simon is on a number of counts, including fraud, breach of contract, and tortious interference.

Roblox is a gaming platform predominantly for children, which has risen hugely in popularity. It's estimatedly worth $45 billion and allows young developers to make money through developing games for the platform.

However, the platform has been criticised for its practices, as explained in a People Make Games video.