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Roblox unbans PewDiePie, but you still can’t say his name

Roblox doesn't seem to want players talking about PewDiePie

February 15, 2019 Roblox has unbanned PewDiePie, but it’s still taking action against a “negative meme.”

Earlier this week, Roblox banned PewDiePie with the note that his ‘pewdie123t32’ username was “inappropriate for Roblox.” In a recent forum post, the developers provide some extra context. Basically, the statement says that ‘pewdie’ memes have been targeted for action by the moderation team, but PewDiePie’s account has been reinstated.

“Roblox is committed to providing a safe and civil platform for our players,” the statement says, “including blocking memes that represent or are synonymous for behavior that falls outside of our community standards. In December, ‘pewdie’ became one of these negative memes on Roblox. As such, we began blocking the creation of new usernames that incorporated the term ‘pewdie.’”

It’s unclear whether this refers to a specific meme within the Roblox community, or simply the broader ‘sub to PewDiePie’ meme that’s taken hold in his subscriber war with T-Series. PewDiePie is a controversial figure, with incidents ranging from his use of the the N-word on stream to his recommendation of a YouTube channel filled with anti-Semitic jokes, and it’s likely that Roblox is trying to protect a family-friendly image.

 

“As with every user,” the statement concludes, “we have a zero tolerance policy for inappropriate behavior on Roblox that violates our terms of use or community guidelines, including discriminatory speech or actions based on race or ethnic origin, national origin, religion or religious affiliation, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation. If a violation occurs, that user account will be banned.”

 

The company did not respond to an earlier request for additional details.

Ordinary players are seeing similar actions, as Kotaku reports. In-game objects carrying the ‘sub to PewDiePie’ banner are getting removed, and – as noted in the official statement – usernames referencing PewDiePie in varied spellings have been restricted from the account creation process.

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PewDiePie has apologised for many of the incidents noted above, but it’s easy to imagine that Roblox, with its large audience of cheldren, is skittish about what he’ll be apologising for next.