How the internet took the Roblox shutting down rumour and ran away with it

Roblox—the game built on the power of blocks and imagination—has gone through some strange times in the last couple of years. It's a wildly popular platform for both playing and creating games, so what is with the rumours about Roblox shutting down?

The speculation surrounding Roblox shutting down has even taken on a viral life of its own, with the creators themselves periodically attempting to snuff out the rumours before they caught fire. Despite their efforts, every now and then, the chatter springs up like dandelions on a fresh cut lawn. So what gives?

The shutdown rumour was apparently kicked off by a now-deleted post on React2424.com, a website whose tagline reads, "Write an article and prank your friends for fun" - not really a paragon of journalistic integrity. To be fair, they're not even trying to be.

Still, the whispers about the apparently impending demise of Roblox crescendoed. So much so that Roblox tweeted about it back in January.

Let’s set things straight: Roblox isn’t “shutting down.” The same hoax (with a few details changed) goes around every year or two.

Remember: don’t believe everything y’all read on the internet! 

— Roblox (@Roblox) January 14, 2020

Case closed? Not really. A group with more than 10,000 members has emerged with a mission to stop Roblox shutting down—even though the company itself said that it wasn't going to happen. In the end, this phenomenon probably says more about the nature of rumours on the internet than Roblox itself.

In the meantime, Roblox goes from strength-to-strength and was recently valued as a multi-billion dollar company. This makes the insistence that the party is all going to come to an end all the more baffling. But until the next wave of hysteria comes—which, judging by recent history, is inevitable—we'll wait with bated breath.