Content moderation has become an increasingly hot topic as the internet grows, making it more difficult for platforms to monitor what's going on in their respective spaces. These issues are common on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, but they also frequently bleed into other areas, including video games. According to a new report, Roblox is battling with recreations of mass shootings appearing on the platform, which hosts user-generated content.
As reported by The Verge, Roblox is having difficulty removing recreations of shootings, such as the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooting. The incidents primarily seem to be being uncovered by Daniel Kelley, a researcher for the Anti-Defamation League. On Twitter, Kelley shared one such incident that he found while searching "Christchurch" on the platform recently. The Christchurch shooting resulted in the deaths of 51 people.
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This isn't the first time that Kelley has found recreations of the Christchurch mosque shooting on Roblox, either. In a tweet shared earlier this year, which Kelley included in the new incident, he was able to find two separate recreations of the shooting. Kelley is worried that Roblox has the potential to become a platform for radicalization if the problem is left unchecked, as Roblox is popular among children.
In fact, Roblox's size and popularity are major contributing factors to its moderation difficulties in the first place. In an SEC filing, Roblox claimed that it saw 36.2 million daily users, many of which are children or young adults. Moderating that number of users is a goliath task on its own, and certain content flagging systems are too general to be effective, according to Roblox. For example, blocking instances of "Christchurch" appearing on the platform would also block general references to the city, which is one of New Zealand's biggest.
Roblox has issued a full statement to The Verge, which highlighted some of its efforts on cracking down on similar incidents. "We promptly removed this experience from Roblox after it was brought to our attention," the statement said. It went on to state that the company had no tolerance for "racism, discriminatory speech, or content related to tragic events." Roblox has since banned the user responsible for the Christchurch shooting that Kelley circulated on Twitter.
Roblox isn't alone in its troubles. Similar gaming platforms have also been host to harmful and offensive content. For example, a 2020 report from the ADL found that Steam is a breeding ground for extremism, in part due to Valve's hands-off approach to moderation. It's a serious issue, and one that doesn't show signs of significant improvement.
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