Discord cites user profiling violations in shutdown of popular anti-predator bot

Discord has shut down Ro-Cleaner, a bot designed to automatically ban suspected child predators from servers, citing violations of its policies against user profiling. The bot, developed by YouTuber Ruben Sim, aimed to identify users associated with explicit or harmful communities on the Roblox platform and prevent them from joining Discord servers focused on child-friendly content.

According to a notice sent to the developer and Sim’s subsequent posts online, Discord stated the bot violated its terms by profiling users based on “protected characteristics.” Ruben contested this, arguing that participation in servers dedicated to explicit content, particularly involving minors or circumventing platform rules, should not be considered a protected characteristic.

He announced the shutdown on X, stating, “Apparently being in a Roblox porn server is a protected characteristic and we’re not allowed to give owners of kid-friendly servers a tool to ban these people.”

Ro-Cleaner operated by maintaining a database of Discord users found in specific Roblox-related servers known for explicit content or rule-breaking activities, often referred to as “condo servers.” When a user from this database attempted to join one of the over 23,000 Discord servers using Ro-Cleaner, the bot would automatically ban them. Ruben claimed the bot had identified over 600,000 potentially harmful users over four months. While existing bans remain, the bot can no longer automatically check new members.

A post on Reddit discussing the shutdown gained a lot of traction with over 1.6 thousand upvotes and close to 200 comments. Some users expressed outrage, viewing Discord’s action as hindering efforts to protect children. User @LeiS8n commented, “So it’s confirmed, predators are pretty much considered a protected class by roblox and discord, it’s no wonder they hardly even pretend to care.”

However, others pointed to concerns about Ro-Cleaner itself and its developer. Criticisms surfaced regarding the bot’s lack of transparency, with a secret ban list and unclear criteria for adding users. Concerns were also raised about Ruben’s own controversial online behavior and alleged biases. Reddit user FearAndDelight_ remarked, “ngl, Ro-Cleaner was highly sus from the start. 100% secretive ban-list & criteria (no way to vet for anything), ran by a person with incredible bias… AND the only reassurance that he gave that he wouldn’t abuse the power was ‘trust us bro.'” A few others also indicated that they were worried that personal biases could lead to innocent users being wrongly targeted.

Nevertheless, Ruben has stated plans to develop a new bot allowing server owners to manage custom ban lists and intends to release the Ro-Cleaner database for public use. Feel free to share your thoughts on this action from Discord in the comments below.