Roblox faces Ban in Russia over content concerns

Russia has banned the user-generated content platform Roblox, citing the presence of LGBTQ content as one of the reasons, according to a translation of an article from the state-owned news agency TASS.

Roblox allows players to create and share their own games and experiences, similar to Minecraft, hosting various communities, including military roleplaying and LGBTQ solidarity groups. The ban comes as Russia enforces laws designating public LGBTQ advocacy as “extremist activity.”

The ban also comes amidst broader safety and moderation challenges. Reports have suggested that the platform exposed some of its underage users to child predators.

Roblox has faced legal probes in the U.S. from the attorneys general in Texas and Louisiana. Since then, Roblox has introduced age checks and content moderation tools focused on children’s safety. Beginning in January, the gaming company intends to implement compulsory facial verification to access Roblox’s chat features.

The popular gaming company has also requested developers to flag experiences that “are primarily themed on a sensitive social, political, or religious issue” so that the parents of users under 13 years old can choose if their children can access that content. This sparked backlash from advocacy groups like Out Making Games, Women in Games, and BAME in Games, which represent minority groups in the gaming industry. In an open letter, the groups wrote that Roblox considered topics like “pay equity in sports” to be “sensitive.”

“While parental controls serve an important purpose, they shouldn’t come at the expense of fundamental human dignity. We are calling on Roblox to reconsider these guidelines and find ways to protect young users without legitimizing discrimination or silencing important voices,” the letter added.

App intelligence firm Appfigures reports that Roblox was installed an estimated 70 million times in Russia on mobile, with about 8 million downloads so far this year.