The online gaming platform Roblox has been banned in Russia. Russian state media reports that the country’s communications agency cited the presence of LGBTQ content on the platform as a reason for the ban. Russia has laws designating public LGBTQ advocacy as extremist activity.
Roblox is a user-generated content platform where players create and share their own games and experiences. The platform hosts various communities, including military roleplaying games and LGBTQ solidarity groups. Roblox did not respond to requests for comment on the ban.
This ban comes as Roblox faces broader safety and moderation challenges. Recent reports have highlighted how the platform exposed some underage users to child predators. In the United States, Roblox has faced legal probes from the attorneys general in Texas and Louisiana.
In response, Roblox has introduced age checks and content moderation tools aimed at keeping children safe. The company plans to implement mandatory facial verification to access its chat features beginning in January, though such technology raises its own safety concerns.
Roblox has also asked developers to flag experiences that are primarily themed on a sensitive social, political, or religious issue. This allows parents of users under 13 to decide if their children can access that content. The move sparked backlash from advocacy groups representing minority groups in the gaming industry.
These groups wrote in an open letter that Roblox considered topics like pay equity in sports to be sensitive. They stated that while parental controls are important, they should not come at the expense of fundamental human dignity, and called on Roblox to reconsider its guidelines.
According to app intelligence firm Appfigures, Roblox was installed an estimated 70 million times in Russia on mobile devices, with about 8 million downloads so far this year.