Roblox Denies Claims Made In Hindenburg Report About “Inflated Metrics” And A Lack Of Safety For Kids

Yesterday, investment research firm Hindenburg Research published a report containing several claims against popular MMO Roblox. The research, which is compiled in a lengthy list on Hindenburg’s site, addresses two main claims. The first is that ‘Roblox is lying to investors, regulators, and advertisers about the “number” of people on its platform’. According to the report, Roblox inflates these numbers by 25-42%. These would be the counts the company releases in their financial reports.

The other primary claim in the report is that the game is “a pedophile hellscape for kids”. It goes on to state that the company is “compromising child safety in order to report growth to investors” and also lists accounts, groups, and games that emphasize the point. This isn't the first organization to make these types of accusations.

Today, Roblox responded to the report, posting a statement online that refutes the claims. The statement says, “The financial claims made by Hindenburg are misleading”. As a note as to why this might be the case, the response claims that the authors of the Hindenburg report are “short sellers and have an agenda irrespective of the substance of Roblox’s business model and results."

It also states, in response to the child safety claims, that “tens of millions of users of all ages have a safe and positive experience on Roblox, abiding by the company’s community standards”. The company adds that it “takes any content or behavior on the platform that doesn’t abide by its standards extremely seriously, and Roblox has a robust set of proactive and preventative safety measures designed to catch and prevent malicious or harmful activity on the platform”.

That said, the Hindenburg report is not the only report claiming that there are issues with child safety on the Roblox platform. Back in July, Bloomberg reported on the same issues. Roblox pushed back on those at the time as well.