It is revealed that there is a dark community on Roblox that recreates mass shootings
The Dark Side of Roblox: 'Active Shooter Studios' Create Maps Based on Real-Life Mass Shootings | ADL
https://www.adl.org/resources/article/dark-side-roblox-active-shooter-studios-create-maps-based-real-life-mass
Roblox Has A Community Of Players Who Recreate School Shootings
https://kotaku.com/roblox-school-shootings-columbine-ass-adl-report-kids-1851777207
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the largest Jewish organization in the United States and an organization established with the aim of legally combating anti-Semitism, has reported that Roblox has a community that reenacts past mass shootings.
Roblox is a popular online game for children and teens, but contrary to its image as a 'game for kids,' it has long been criticized for having problems with content moderation, player safety, and content appropriateness. The ADL Center on Extremism has revealed the existence of a 'dark community' on Roblox that is centered on gang violence.
A group called Active Shooter Studios (ASS) is creating Roblox maps that recreate mass shootings in the United States, such as the Columbine High School massacre , the Robb Elementary School massacre , and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, as well as mass shootings carried out by white supremacists and other extremists as terrorist attacks.
ASS is part of a larger online subculture called the True Crime Community (TCC), a fandom of serial and mass murderers who often create dark memes and fan fiction that glorify murderers and crime. ASS has tried to distance itself from TCC due to its controversial and negative reputation, but regularly uses Roblox to create TCC-esque content.
Regarding the content created by ASS that reenacts mass shootings, the ADL pointed out, 'Not only does it reflect mass violence, but, as ASS leaders claim, it actively glorifies it. By creating content that reenacts mass shootings, ASS fosters an environment in which violence is not only normalized but celebrated, as is evident in how the group's fans and players perceive the game. Because it includes scenes of extremist-related shootings, the content they create strengthens the overlap between the TCC subculture and extremism, particularly among accelerationist white supremacists and incels.'
Led by a user who goes by the name 'Rorshac,' ASS specializes in creating highly detailed and disturbing recreations of real-life mass shootings. The most infamous mass shooting reenactment map created by ASS is called 'Carbine,' and it recreates the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, which allows players to take on the role of perpetrators Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. The Columbine massacre is one of the most famous incidents for TCC followers.
Rorshac works closely with another developer who goes by the name 'Skinless' to develop maps such as Carbine. Rorshac is in charge of the overall map and design, while Skinless focuses on more specialized tasks such as 'weapon animation creation.'
The ADL described the map created by ASS as 'eerily graphically detailed, depicting the mass shooting it models with disturbing accuracy and brutality.'
For example, in one map that recreates the Robb Elementary School massacre that occurred in 2022, students, apparently depicted as children, are programmed to hide under desks or play dead when the shooting begins.
The brutality of the maps created by ASS is so extreme that players can injure or dismember other players or characters, something that is 'at least nominally prohibited' by Roblox's community rules, the ADL points out.
Roblox is working to remove maps created by ASS, but ASS is exploring various ways to make its content available. Although ASS hosts its games on paid Roblox private servers, the maps themselves exist as part of the main Roblox platform, allowing players to control who they allow to join these spaces. This makes it less likely that Roblox will suspend your account even if it detects the map itself.
ASS also runs a private Discord server where they discuss map development, share links to maps, and use it as a hub to request new features and content. ASS also hosts events where server members can play games together and share feedback. ASS's Discord server has been deleted several times due to Discord suspensions, but new ones have still been created many times, and at the time of writing, the server has about 500 members.
ASS also runs a Roblox community with around 800 members, community leaders who promote their fanbase and a private Discord server, and an online store selling Carbine-related merchandise.
In addition, TikTok seems to play an important role in spreading ASS content. There are many TikTok accounts that post gameplay videos of ASS's mass shooting reenactment game, and the comments section of these videos seems to be flooded with requests for the name and link of the game. Rorshac himself is also active on TikTok, and frequently posts links to ASS' Discord server in the comments section.
Although ASS is best known as a community that creates maps to recreate mass shootings, ASS is not the only community that is being questioned. ADL points out that other individual developers are also creating similar content for the sandbox game Garry's Mod . ADL pointed out that the spread of such TCC-like content is a 'worrying trend.'
Below is content created with Garry's Mod that recreates the 2022 Buffalo mass shooting .
Roblox, Discord, and TikTok all have community guidelines that prohibit content that glorifies mass violence. Additionally, these platforms have taken steps to ban mass shooting reenactment videos created by ASS and others, and have reportedly responded quickly to ADL's reports. However, the ADL points out that 'there is still room for improvement,' and questions what measures are being taken to prevent private spaces from being misused to spread reenactment videos.
Regarding the need to regulate mass shooting reenactment content created by ASS, the ADL pointed out that 'games that reenact offline mass violence not only desensitize young people to these events, but also turn this type of reenactment into a normal form of entertainment. ' In fact, when a mass shooting occurs, there are cases where comments praising the perpetrator are posted on social media, the ADL pointed out.
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