Benjamin Robert Simon, better known by his online handle of Ruben Sim, is being sued by the Roblox Corporation for leading what it calls a "cybermob" that terrorized Roblox and its developers.
According to court documents obtained by Polygon, the suit was filed yesterday in California court and alleges Simon committed "unlawful acts designed to injure Roblox and its users," including cyberbullying users, harassing developers, and one instance of posting false terrorist threats on social media that led to the temporary shutdown of the Roblox Developers Conference last month. Roblox Corporation is seeking $1.6 million in penalties.
Ruben Sim has been banned from Roblox for years, but still managed to access the game either through hacking or by using other people's accounts. He was originally banned for harassment, using racial and homophobic slurs, and uploading pictures of Adolf Hitler, with many of these instances being posted to his YouTube or Patreon channel.
The last straw came last October during the 2021 Roblox Developers Conference in San Francisco. Simon and his "cybermob" followers posted fake terrorist threats on Twitter suggesting that the San Francisco Police were searching the venue for a "notorious Islamic extremist.” This led to the event's delay and forced a "temporary lockdown" while the local police searched the facility, which alone cost Roblox $50,000.
Sim's tweets have since been deleted, but the suit also mentions multiple instances of "targeted harassment" against Roblox users and developers both in-game and on social media. Roblox is suing for fraud, breach of contract, and four other counts.
Roblox is one of the biggest game platforms in the world, with a current market cap valued at over $71 billion as of this writing. The game is primarily aimed at young children aged 10 and above. Perhaps one of the first examples of a true "metaverse," Roblox features lots of user-generated content that it sells in an in-game store. However, Roblox has since been accused of exploiting young developers with a monetization scheme that rarely pays out.