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This gaming platform has ‘zero tolerance’ for antisemitism. Holocaust reenactments keep reappearing anyway.
As the game “German Camp” begins, you arrive at a virtual building with a large German flag on display. There, on the gaming platform Roblox, your avatar can put on a helmet labelled “Stahlhelm,” the steel headgear worn by Nazi soldiers during World War II. Next door, soldiers stand watch over fenced-in barracks where characters labeled “noobs” — a derogatory term for inexperienced gamers — line up to be killed.
“This is the best place in the world,” a user named Bravado writes in the chat before shooting your character — as happened to this reporter.
Roblox, where users can create their own virtual worlds — and explore millions more made by other players — says it has a zero tolerance policy against antisemitism. But Holocaust scenes and imagery have continued to appear on the platform for years.
In 2022, Roblox removed a simulation of Nazi gas chambers, which users could operate by pressing “execute.” The Global Network on Extremism & Technology found a game titled “1941 – Konzentrationslager Auschwitz” on the platform in October 2025.
“Hate or harassment targeting Jewish people or any religious community is strictly prohibited on our platform,” Roblox spokesperson Eric Porterfield wrote in a statement, adding that “we take swift enforcement action against users we find violating our rules.”
Roblox removed “German Camp” shortly after the Forward’s inquiry about the game and confirmed it violated the platform’s policies. The game, advertised for ages 13 and older, had been played 174 times and was available for about two years.
‘No system is perfect’
Roblox prohibits content that “recreates specific real-world sensitive events” and “supports, glorifies, or promotes the perpetrators or outcome of such events,” including the Holocaust.
But “no system is perfect,” Porterfield wrote in a statement, adding that Roblox relies on a combination of AI detection, human reviewers, and community reporting to identify and remove antisemitic content.
In the case of the “German Camp” game, a member of Roblox’s public policy team told the Forward that the game would have been flagged immediately had it used the term “concentration camp.” Without such keywords, however, content can be more difficult to detect.
Roblox’s AI filters scan for terms like “Nazi,” automatically removing some content and identifying ambiguous cases for human review. The company works with thousands of contractors to evaluate flagged material, and players can also report misconduct directly. Roblox said it then evaluates player histories to help determine the severity of the offense, and disciplines players accordingly.
But Constantin Winkler, a researcher at the Global Network on Extremism & Technology who has studied extremist content on Roblox, said users evade these guardrails by intentionally misspelling words or communicating in code.
For instance, the Global Network on Extremism & Technology identified usernames such as “lolocaust,” “Atolf Zitler,” and the use of “88” — code for “Heil Hitler,” with “H” being the eighth letter of the alphabet.
Roblox said it found and removed 61 accounts, one game, and two groups that violated their policies after the Global Network on Extremism & Technology’s report in October about extremist content on Roblox.
But the Forward this month identified users named “konzentrationKamp,” “konzentrationausch,” “konzentrations_lager,” and “holowocaust,” and games titled “The Camp 1942” and “271k or 6 million,” referencing the conspiratorial claim that only 271,000 Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Other problematic content was more explicit: a game titled “JEWS,” featuring images of men in black hats clutching money bags, or “LIFE IN ISRAHELL,” featuring Stars of David set ablaze.
“They try to take some things down, but you can always find it again,” Winkler said.
Roblox works with organizations including the Anti-Defamation League, Tech Against Terrorism, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center to constantly audit and strengthen its moderation policies, according to its policy on safety and civility.
According to Winkler, Roblox users also frequently encounter players building or drawing swastikas during live gameplay. Because these actions happen in real time, he said, they are far more difficult to moderate than problematic usernames or pre-built worlds.
That’s a familiar challenge for Tristan Brown, a 19-year-old Jewish college student who was playing a Roblox spray-paint game when, suddenly, his player was surrounded by graffitied swastikas. He and his friends quickly logged off.
“It makes me want to stop playing on the platform, because if I’m gonna be playing, why can’t I be respected?” Brown told the Forward. “I wish there was more of a crackdown on things like that.”
A broader challenge
Video games reenacting concentration camps are not new: In 1991, a video game called “KZ Manager” circulated in Austria and Germany, where the player runs the Treblinka death camp.
Hate groups have also long used video games as a medium of choice. In 2002, the white supremacist group National Alliance created a video game titled “Ethnic Cleansing,” a first-person shooter game where players participate in a race war, killing stereotypically-depicted Jews, African Americans and Latinos.
But these games are generally created by extremists, for extremists, Winkler said. Roblox, meanwhile, is a mainstream gaming platform with 82.9 million daily active users last year. About 40% of its users are under the age of 13.
Roblox is far from the only popular gaming platform that’s struggled to crack down on hateful content: Minecraft, Steam, and Discord have all come under fire for neo-Nazi content — as has virtually every video game or streaming platform with a substantial following. In the digital era, it’s practically a given that platforms built around user-generated content will attract hate. Video games, many of which combine anonymity, creative freedom, simulated violence, and the ability to interact with other players, are especially fertile ground for extremism, Winkler said.
In response to the spread of extremist content, educational Holocaust-themed video games have emerged, including a virtual Holocaust museum hosted on Fortnite. But these efforts have also drawn harassment: The project’s release was delayed after white nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes urged neo-Nazis to target it.
A 2022 survey from the Anti-Defamation League found that 34% of Jewish gamers said they experienced identity-based harassment while playing. Players most often encountered white-supremacist ideologies in the games Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Valorant, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and Fortnite, the ADL found. Then last year, the ADL tried logging onto various video games with the username “Proud2BJewish” — and 38% of their gameplay sessions resulted in some form of harassment.
Meanwhile, overmoderation — particularly when it relies on unreliable artificial intelligence — can backfire, sweeping up innocent users and undermining trust in moderation systems. At the same time that Roblox has faced scrutiny for failing to curb antisemitism, its forums are rife with complaints that the platform’s moderation system is plagued by false positives.
Efforts to police content in video games have also long raised concerns about censorship and government overreach. After the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, a moral panic took hold around video games when the perpetrators, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, were revealed to be avid players of violent video games. Subsequent research has largely failed to establish a causal link between violent video games and real-world violence.
For Winkler, the central danger is not that a player will encounter a depiction of a concentration camp and immediately become radicalized. Instead, he said, the concern is more insidious.
“In our research, we don’t even care about, Is it ironic? Is it humor? Because extremist content is extremist content, and it’s available,” Winkler said. “It’s really dangerous because it’s part of a normalization process.”
The post This gaming platform has ‘zero tolerance’ for antisemitism. Holocaust reenactments keep reappearing anyway. appeared first on The Forward.
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Trump Safe After Being Rushed from White House Correspondents Dinner, Shooter in Custody
U.S. President Donald Trump is escorted out as a shooter opens fire during the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 25, 2026, in this screen capture from video. REUTERS/Bo Erickson
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were rushed out of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner by Secret Service agents on Saturday night after a man armed with a shotgun tried to breach security, officials said.
A man armed with a shotgun fired at a Secret Service agent, an FBI official told Reuters. The agent was hit in an area covered by protective gear and not harmed, the official said.
All federal officials, including Trump, were safe. About an hour after Trump was rushed from the event, he posted on Truth Social that a “shooter had been apprehended.”
“Quite an evening in D.C. Secret Service and Law Enforcement did a fantastic job,” Trump added.
Shortly afterwards, he posted, “The First Lady, plus the Vice President, and all Cabinet members, are in perfect condition.” He said he would be holding a White House press conference on Saturday night.
Anthony Guglielmi, a Secret Service spokesman, said the service was investigating a shooting near the main screening area at the entrance to the event.
After the sound of shots, dinner attendees immediately stopped talking and people started screaming “Get down, get down!”
Hundreds of guests dove under the tables as Secret Service officers in combat gear ran into the dining room. Trump and the first lady had bent down behind the dais before being hustled out by Secret Service officers.
Many of the 2,600 attendees took cover while waiters fled to the front of the dining hall.
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Trump Cancels Envoys’ Pakistan Trip, in Blow to Hopes for Iran War Breakthrough
US President Donald Trump speaks on the day he honors reigning Major League Soccer (MLS) champion Inter Miami CF players and team officials with an event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, March 5, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
President Donald Trump canceled a trip by two US envoys to Iran war mediator Pakistan on Saturday, dealing a new setback to peace prospects after Iran’s foreign minister departed Islamabad after speaking only to Pakistani officials.
While peace talks failed to materialize Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his troops to “forcefully” attack Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, his office said, further testing a three-week ceasefire.
Trump told reporters in Florida that he decided to call off the planned visit by US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner because the talks in Islamabad involved too much travel and expense, and Iran’s latest peace offer was not good enough for him.
Before boarding Air Force One on Saturday for a return flight to Washington, Trump said Iran had improved an offer to resolve the conflict after he canceled the visit, “but not enough.”
In a social media post, Trump also wrote there was “tremendous infighting and confusion” within Iran’s leadership.
“Nobody knows who is in charge, including them. Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!” he posted on Truth Social.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi earlier left the Pakistani capital without any sign of a breakthrough in talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other senior officials.
Araqchi later described his visit to Pakistan as “very fruitful,” adding in a social media post that he had “shared Iran’s position concerning (a) workable framework to permanently end the war on Iran. Have yet to see if the U.S. is truly serious about diplomacy”.
Iranian media reported that Araqchi had flown to Oman’s capital Muscat, saying he will meet with senior officials to “discuss and exchange views on bilateral relations and regional developments”.
Sharif wrote in a post on X that he spoke with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian about the regional security situation and told him that Pakistan was committed to serving “as an honest and sincere facilitator — working tirelessly to advance durable peace and lasting stability.”
Tehran has ruled out a new round of direct talks with the United States and an Iranian diplomatic source said his country would not accept Washington’s “maximalist demands.”
IRAN AND US AT AN IMPASSE
Washington and Tehran are at an impasse as Iran has largely closed the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, while the US blocks Iran’s oil exports.
The conflict, in which a ceasefire is in force, began with US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran on February 28. Iran has since carried out strikes against Israel, US bases and Gulf states, and the war has pushed up energy prices to multi-year highs, stoking inflation and darkening global growth prospects.
Araqchi “explained our country’s principled positions regarding the latest developments related to the ceasefire and the complete end of the imposed war against Iran,” said a statement on the minister’s official Telegram account.
Asked about Tehran’s reservations over US positions in the talks, an Iranian diplomatic source in Islamabad told Reuters: “Principally, Iranian side will not accept maximalist demands.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had said the US had seen some progress from the Iranian side in recent days and hoped more would come over the weekend, while Vice President JD Vance was ready to travel to Pakistan as well.
Vance led a first round of unsuccessful talks with Iran in Islamabad earlier this month.
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Hezbollah Says Ceasefire ‘Meaningless’ as Fighting Continues in South
Israeli military vehicles and soldiers in a village in southern Lebanon as the Israeli army operates in it as seen from the Israeli side of the border, April 23, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Ayal Margolin
Lebanon’s Hezbollah said a US-mediated ceasefire in the war with Israel was meaningless a day after it was extended for three weeks, as Lebanese authorities reported two people killed by an Israeli strike and Hezbollah downed an Israeli drone.
US President Donald Trump announced the three-week extension on Thursday after hosting Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors at the White House. The ceasefire agreement between the governments of Lebanon and Israel had been due to expire on Sunday.
While the ceasefire has led to a significant reduction in hostilities, Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have continued to trade blows in southern Lebanon, where Israel has kept soldiers in a self-declared “buffer zone.”
Responding to the extension, Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Fayyad said “it is essential to point out that the ceasefire is meaningless in light of Israel’s insistence on hostile acts, including assassinations, shelling, and gunfire” and its demolition of villages and towns in the south.
“Every Israeli attack… gives the resistance the right to a proportionate response,” he added.
Hezbollah is not a party to the ceasefire agreement, and has strongly objected to Lebanon’s face-to-face contacts with Israel.
BUFFER ZONE
The April 16 agreement does not require Israeli troops to withdraw from the belt of southern Lebanon seized during the war. The zone extends 5 to 10 km (3 to 6 miles) into Lebanon.
Israel says the buffer zone aims to protect northern Israel from attacks by Hezbollah, which fired hundreds of rockets at Israel during the war.
Hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel reignited on March 2, when the group opened fire in support of Iran in the regional war. The ceasefire in Lebanon emerged separately from Washington’s efforts to resolve its conflict with Tehran, though Iran had called for Lebanon to be included in any broader truce.
Nearly 2,500 people have been killed in Lebanon since March 2, the Lebanese health ministry says.
ISRAELI MILITARY WARNS RESIDENTS TO LEAVE TOWN
Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli airstrike killed two people in the southern village of Touline on Friday.
Hezbollah shot down an Israeli drone, the group and the Israeli military said. Hezbollah identified it as a Hermes 450 and said it had downed it with a surface-to-air missile.
An Israeli drone was heard circling above Beirut throughout the day on Friday, Reuters reporters said.
The Israeli military warned residents of the southern town of Deir Aames to leave their homes immediately, saying it planned to act against “Hezbollah activities” there.
Deir Aames is located north of the area occupied by Israeli forces, and it was the first time Israel had issued such a warning since the ceasefire came into force on April 16. Posted on social media, the Israeli warning gave no details of the activities it said Hezbollah was conducting in the town.
The Israeli military also said it had intercepted a drone prior to its crossing into Israeli territory, and that sirens were sounded in line with protocol.
WAR-WEARY RESIDENTS SEEK END TO FIGHTING
The continued fighting has angered war-weary Lebanese, who say they want to see a genuine ceasefire put a full halt to violence.
“What’s this? Is this called a ceasefire? Or is this mocking (people’s) intelligence?” said Naem Saleh, a 73-year-old owner of a newsstand in Beirut.
Residents of northern Israel had mostly returned to daily life, but expressed pessimism about the longevity of the ceasefire with Lebanon.
“I believe that the ceasefire is so fragile, and unfortunately it won’t stand long, in my opinion,” said Eliad Eini, a resident of Nahariya, which lies just 10 km (6 miles) from the border with Lebanon.
On Wednesday, Israeli strikes killed at least five people in the south, including a journalist.
Israel’s Ambassador to Washington Yechiel Leiter, in his opening remarks at Thursday’s talks, said “Lebanon should acknowledge the temporary presence of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) and the right of Israel to defend itself from a hostile force that is firing on the population.”
Lebanon’s Ambassador to the United States Nada Moawad, in a written statement sent to Reuters, called for the ceasefire to be fully respected and said it would allow the necessary conditions for meaningful negotiations.
Lebanon has said it aims to secure the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from its territory in broader talks with Israel at a later stage.
Trump said on Thursday that he looked forward to hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in the near future, and said there was “a great chance” the two countries would reach a peace agreement this year.
Hezbollah attacks killed two civilians in Israel after March 2, while 15 Israeli soldiers have died in Lebanon since then, Israel says.