Update on the chat restriction in the middle east?

[Ghostinee (Ghost)]

The Roblox chat (and VC) has been disabled for over a month now in about 18 countries (in the middle east) and we have gotten 0 updates regarding when it might come back. I would like to heavily request an update regarding this issue as it has made it impossible to play many big-front-page games (and smaller one’s too), especially one’s that rely on using chat, or even the ability to use emotes in R6 games (like /e dance, etc…) due to those games not allowing you to use the emote wheel (since its a forced R6 game) because you can’t type in the chat box at all.

I don’t understand why this decision was sudden without any warning and it has made it impossible for us to communicate with people, some have even reported losing friends over this thinking they are ignoring them when in reality we can’t use chat or even see what others are chatting.

As a developer it has made things very hard for me and I can’t stress enough how hard it has made things, I also don’t understand why ID verified (18+) users had their chat disabled too? Since they are ID verified I would assume at least let those have access to the chat normally since you are sure they are adults who should have more access to website features in general.

Please give us any update on when this issue could be resolved, it has been complete radio silence for over a month now (even the decision to restrict chat was sudden and with no public annoucnement) and many people are losing hope over this situation.

Also, I am hoping my fellow devforum members could help share our voice about this situation.

[wire_rot]

The idea was that the restrictions would only remain up until improved moderation processes are implemented for users in Arabic speaking countries. The burden is not entirely on ROBLOX, because this happened due to an agreement between ROBLOX and both Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Anyways, no one knows exactly how long things will be like this. They apparently want to have an entirely new moderation apparatus specifically for Arab countries, and that’s going to have to go back and forth between ROBLOX and whatever regulatory commission is involved until both parties are satisfied. I don’t think ROBLOX is going to suffer that much from this decision, seeing how little most Middle Eastern ROBLOX players care about the chat. My own estimation is 1 or 2 more months (before FY2026), and that’s if we are lucky.

[Godsius]

Honestly, I don’t understand. This is not fair at all, especially for people who rely on communicating with their community in-game. At least as a temporary solution, let the +18 age have chat and voice chat.

[Gucci_Dabs222 (Euphorian)]

bro i cant make any more vow of mastery in deepwoken im cooked

@wire_rot

seeing how little most Middle Eastern ROBLOX players care about the chat.

where are you getting this info from

[wire_rot]

Basically, most players are kids of the baby variety. My little cousin who plays games such as “EAT FOOD AND GET FAT SIMULATOR” or “حمام سكيبيدي 2025” is not going to riot over the fact that he can’t write in chat anymore. That is, for better or for worse, the majority of ROBLOX players in the Middle East. It’s also why ROBLOX isn’t really going to lose much by doing this.

Source: I’m from the Middle East.

[Gucci_Dabs222 (Euphorian)]

@wire_rot

My little cousin

no way you’re generalizing the whole middle eastern population of roblox players from your little cousin
more accurately, the major demographic of roblox players GLOBALLY are of said baby variety. this applies to both the middle east and everywhere else in the world.

@wire_rot

Source: I’m from the Middle East.

i am as well, but not really of the baby variety…

i mean, unless you’ve literally censused the whole of middle eastern population then you alone are not a valid source for demographic metrics gng.

[wire_rot]

@Gucci_Dabs222

no way you’re generalizing the whole middle eastern population of roblox players from your little cousin
more accurately, the major demographic of roblox players GLOBALLY are of said baby variety. this applies to both the middle east and everywhere else in the world.

It was a funny little anecdote. Everything I said was purely inference, but notice how muted the backlash to the chat ban is. I’m not sure what the point of disputing me on that claim is, because my original point still stands: Middle Eastern players who care about chat are not that significant of a demographic, because if they were, things would be different.

[Gucci_Dabs222 (Euphorian)]

@wire_rot

Everything I said was purely inference

bro u cant make claims that 24.3% of roblox’s daily active userbase doesn’t care about chat PURELY THROUGH INFERENCE
for reference, this is greater than the whole northern american dau

@wire_rot

but notice how muted the backlash to the chat ban is.

LITERALLY
uhhh idk what you’re talking about i’ve seen tons of posts about how stupid the chat ban is, both on and off devforum. ironically, this very thread is an example. and anyways, the number of chronically online middle eastern roblox players who decide to rant about it on reddit or twitter is not a valid metric lol.

@wire_rot

Middle Eastern players who care about chat are not that significant of a demographic, because if they were, things would be different.

that’s not how significance works. by that logic, any ignored or quiet group such as minorities are insignificant. not to mention social resources are not at all the same in different regions of the world, including the middle east. not everyone has access to twitter or reddit to (OR WANTS TO) talk about stuff.

also post hoc reasoning:

[wire_rot]

@Gucci_Dabs222

bro u cant make claims that 24.3% of roblox’s daily active userbase doesn’t care about chat PURELY THROUGH INFERENCE
for reference, this is greater than the whole northern american dau

Dude, you just cited a statistic that adds up to over 110%

Either way, the original 24.3% statistic is from here, and it is for ROW (Rest of World). That includes Latin America (Brazil alone is massive, often 2nd to USA in metrics), Africa, the Middle East, and possibly Central Asia (cause whether or not it’s counted into the Asia-Pacific region isn’t clear). ROBLOX chat is not even disabled in North African countries as far as I know.

So yes, I am saying that the majority children demographic of an already small player base have little care for chat features in ROBLOX.

@Gucci_Dabs222

that’s not how significance works. by that logic, any ignored or quiet group such as minorities are insignificant. not to mention social resources are not at all the same in different regions of the world, including the middle east. not everyone has access to twitter or reddit to (OR WANTS TO) talk about stuff.

I understand what you mean in principle, but ROBLOX is a corporation. Significance for them is only measured in how much they can grow their market value. No one is more or less significant because of their capacity and willingness to talk about an issue, and instead by how much time and money they are willing to sink into ROBLOX. Also… lack of social resources as an obstacle doesn’t belong in a discussion about ROBLOX players, people who at the minimum have a device capable of running a game, and internet.

@Gucci_Dabs222

also post hoc reasoning:

Okay, I’ll concede that. I was going to make a comparison in that reply, but I didn’t know if I’d be allowed to bring this topic up here. I’ll try and be brief about it. ROBLOX has three civil lawsuits levied at them in the USA by the Attorney Generals of Louisiana, Kentucky, and now Texas. This is not even including the full roster of people lining up to individually sue ROBLOX, or the insane indictments thrown at ROBLOX by the American news cycle (which is what I was worried I’d get banned if I went into detail about, you can look them up yourself if you’d like). These things are much more consequential for ROBLOX, yet they don’t disable the social features for players in the USA (even though it could easily solve all these issues, or at least remove accountability). At most they float around the idea of gating it with age verification, but the Middle East doesn’t even get that level of placation, which means something here makes it reaaally easy for ROBLOX to take that decision.

EDIT: I’m just going to add this right away. In retrospect, I think this entire back and forth was kind of unnecessary. In all fairness, ROBLOX was given a sink-or-swim decision by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. I think it makes sense that they ultimately just decided to cut their losses, no matter how big or small the playerbase of chat active users was.

[ADragxn (Dragxn)]

Nothing yet just Roblox gaslighting us btw

[Ghostinee (Ghost)]

Yea, I saw this too and had false hope </3

[Godsius]

we all did LOL i cannot believe this is a multi billions net company

[Ghostinee (Ghost)]

6 months passed and STILL NO update. I just find it unfair how all these updates regarding chat are happening with full transparency, and on the other hand, you have us in the Middle East with absolute zero updates, not even a single word. Even our chat getting blocked was a silent announcement. I am begging for any Roblox employee to be transparent with us and at least give us an estimate. You have no idea how horrible it is playing Roblox for 6 months and having no chat and not seeing others’ chats. We’re missing out on a lot of games due to this issue.

And I still stand by my statement, you could at least allow ID-verified 18+ players to still have access to chat. If you are worried about younger audiences, you could keep the chat restricted until you fix things around the way you deem suitable, but for us grown-ups (especially game developers), I seriously do not understand how this makes sense to block our chat/voice chat too.

If you guys need Arabic-speaking moderators, just say so. I, for one, would honestly apply if it would make fixing this issue faster.

[KILLA_CEO (KILLA)]

People can accept delays if there’s transparency, but months of silence while every other chat related feature gets constant updates just makes Middle East users feel ignored.

A lot of us are adults, ID verified, developers, community owners, and long time players. Treating every player in the region the same with a full communication lock makes no sense anymore, especially when Roblox already has systems for age verification and moderation.

[Ghostinee (Ghost)]

We’re almost a year into this issue, 0 communication, 0 updates, and 0 work done towards it. Is it seriously this hard to give us any word? Any update? An ETA or a statement about what exactly is being done to fix this problem? There is an insane amount of players in the Middle East who play Roblox every day and spend big loads of money (since that’s what Roblox seems to only care about nowadays), and you guys just limit chat like that for us out of nowhere and never tell us anything.

We’re just asking for some transparency and when this could be resolved. You’re killing this platform, we can’t play lots of games or talk with friends because of this. We run communities and we are developers on this platform. How can you ruin everything like that for us and not say anything about it?

[Markus21alpha]

Seriously, how long will they stay silent for??? Ive had to shut down a game project because of this! and i’ve been working on it for well over 2 years! 2 ######## years. just gone down the drain because roblox can’t communicate at all. It’s become severely frustrating to get on the platform and even more de-motivating to even open studio.

[fredtheprank2335 (Conductor KSI)]

it seems Roblox just lazily put tape over the situation and completely forgot about it. Roblox will probably never consider giving chat back to middle eastern countries until it directly affects their stock prices.

[fredtheprank2335 (Conductor KSI)]

Also one of the reason I’ve heard for segregating middle eastern countries from the rest of Roblox, was that “they needed to improve the Arabic filter”.

They could’ve just temporarily blocked speaking in the language instead of banning entire regions from using the chat entirely . not everyone in these countries speak Arabic, and there are definitely many Arabic speakers outside of these regions??

Roblox just wants a solution that’s as effortless and money efficient as absolutely possible. They only care about the profits they gain and nothing else.