The web gaming platform Roblox has been banned in Russia, in keeping with a report from Russian state media.
Roblox is a user-generated content material platform the place gamers can create and share their very own video games and experiences, just like Minecraft. The platform hosts varied interest-based and affinity communities, together with navy roleplaying video games and LGBTQ solidarity teams. However Russia has legal guidelines designating public LGBTQ advocacy as “extremist exercise.“
In keeping with a translation of an article in TASS, a state-owned Russian information company, Russia’s communications company cited the presence of LGBTQ content material on the platform as one of many causes behind the ban.
Roblox didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s request for touch upon the ban this afternoon.
The ban comes as Roblox faces broader security and moderation challenges. Current reviews have highlighted how the platform uncovered a few of its underage customers to baby predators. Within the U.S., Roblox has confronted authorized probes from the attorneys common in Texas and Louisiana. Roblox has since launched age checks and content material moderation instruments aimed toward maintaining youngsters protected — starting in January, the corporate plans to implement necessary facial verification to entry Roblox’s chat options. (Nonetheless, facial verification expertise comes with security issues of its personal.)
Roblox has additionally requested builders to flag experiences that “are primarily themed on a delicate social, political, or non secular problem” in order that the dad and mom of customers below 13 years previous can determine if their youngsters can entry that content material. This sparked backlash from advocacy teams like Out Making Video games, Girls in Video games, and BAME in Video games, which symbolize minority teams within the gaming business. In an open letter, the teams wrote that Roblox thought-about subjects like “pay fairness in sports activities” to be “delicate.”
“Whereas parental controls serve an necessary function, they shouldn’t come on the expense of elementary human dignity,” the letter stated. “We’re calling on Roblox to rethink these pointers and discover methods to guard younger customers with out legitimizing discrimination or silencing necessary voices.”
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco
|
October 13-15, 2026
In keeping with Appfigures, an app intelligence agency, Roblox was put in an estimated 70 million occasions in Russia on cellular, with about 8 million downloads thus far this 12 months.
{content material}
Supply: {feed_title}