Russia Blocks Gaming Platform Roblox Over Child Safety Concerns

The platform is also facing scrutiny in several states including Texas, where it is being sued for allegedly failing to protect minors from online predators.

A child adds a face mask to her character on the Roblox game platform at her home in Manchester, England, on April 5, 2020. Phil Noble/Reuters

Russia’s telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor has blocked Roblox, a U.S. gaming platform popular with children, accusing it of allowing the dissemination of extremist materials and “LGBT propaganda.”

Roskomnadzor on Dec. 3 told reporters that it had restricted user access “over registered facts of massive and repeated dissemination of materials with propaganda and justification of extremist and terrorist activities, calls for committing illegal violent actions and LGBT propaganda,” according to Russian news agency Interfax.