Two Destiny 2 developers received racist messages and death threats from stalkers. Now the case has gone before a judge in Ontario and the identities of the stalkers are to be found.
After Bungie, the studio behind Destiny 2, is already taking action against cheaters with a lawyer, there are now further legal steps. But this time with much more serious backgrounds.
A New Jersey newspaper called The Record reported on August 2, 2022 the court order in a case of harassment of two Destiny 2 developers (via therecord.com).
Unknown people threatened the developers of Destiny 2 in response to a tweet. Now those responsible should be found.
Trigger Warning: The following text deals with racism, stalking and death threats.
Here you can see a trailer for the Solstice in Destiny 2:
Destiny 2 shows off your fancy, glowing armor in the new Solstice trailer
“Enjoy your pizza”
What were those threats? In response to a tweet, some Bungie employees received messages threatening them. According to their statements, there were various threats:
Here’s how the employees responded to the threats: The employees were sometimes worried that their real addresses would not only be misused for pizza orders, but for more serious crimes. Some feared “swatting”, i.e. deliberately reporting to a special police unit. People have already been convicted of swatting in Germany and this wasn’t the only case:
Caller to ‘Call of Duty’ swatting jailed for 20 years – It was about $1.50
Two employees therefore arranged for an urgent legal injunction so that TextNow would disclose the caller’s customer data. TextNow is a company that enables anonymous calls through its phone service and through which such calls have been made.
Here is how the court ruled: Already on June 15, 2022, the court gave the green light to the claim. The court waited a month before releasing the case to the public because of its “serious nature, the threat of violence”.
Commenting on the case, the judge said: “Whether they sue in the United States or give the name to the police, I believe that the extraordinary remedy should be available to identify individuals who harass others with vile racism who misuse personal information and make open threats of physical harm and death.”
A single tweet prompts death threats
What did the threats start with? On June 2, 2022, a Bungie employee posted two tweets. The posts were promotions for the Destiny 2 game. He gave 2 videos. The clips featured the black gamer with the in-game name “Uhmaayyze”. Here’s one of the tweets:
Fred Myers, the Supreme Court Justice said, “He is well known among Destiny 2 players and viewers for performing freestyle rap on live streaming platforms while playing the game.”
After the tweet went public, hackers began doxing and hate mail was sent to developers at Bungie game studio. “Doxing” means the publication of personal information on the Internet that should actually remain private.
There are always cases in which the police or courts have to clean up in the gaming sector:
FBI takes man to court for stealing $324,000 from FIFA 18