Bungie has dialed back communication with the Destiny 2 community following the alleged doxxing and harassment of Bungie employees. This started after one of the employees tweeted an ad for the game featuring Uhmaayyze, an African-American Twitch streamer who streams the game regularly. Following this, a alleged campaign of doxxing occurred and several employees and their families began to receive death threats against them. The two employees eventually sought a court order to have TextNow Inc., which offers users anonymous phone service, to name those who were behind the harassment. The company collects information about each user, including email address, phone number, IP address, credit card number, and logs of calls and texts. A judge agreed on June 15 but waited to release the reasons due to “the serious nature of the allegations of danger.”
The threats began of June 14 where an anonymous person tweeted to Bungie accounts an alleged threat to kill employees. “That night a person who called himself ‘Brian’ left a voice mail on the personal telephone line of the employee who posted the ads. Brian referred to the employee by name and requested that Destiny 2 provide a scene or a downloadable piece of the game (DLC) for ‘N-word killing,’ ” Superior Court Justice Fred Myers said. “A few minutes later he called back and identified himself as a member of a far-right-wing social network known to publish material that is censored from mainstream social media. He repeated the request for an ‘N-word killing’ DLC to be added to Destiny 2.”
The employee’s spouse also got a text asking for the DLC and a voicemail saying, “Enjoy your pizza.” After this, the couple called the local police and made a report.
“Brian” wasn’t the only one who made threats and harassed Bungie employees. Evidence showed that a Destiny 2 player with the username @Inkcel had been making threats as well. “Inkcel tweeted a picture of the employee’s Bungie staff ID card,” Myers said. “He tweeted that he had moved to live 30 minutes from the employee.” Inkcel also tweeted the employee’s full name and said the employee “is not safe.”
Employees feared that the use of their home addresses would lead to a “swatting” incident.
“Our mission is to provide everyone with an affordable way to communicate, and we place a high value on the safety and privacy of our users,” a TextNow spokesperson said in an email to The Record. “From time to time, we receive lawful requests for information. We comply with all valid requests as required by law.”
Neil Paris, one of the lawyers representing the two Bungie employees, said the company had no comment on the judge’s ruling.