Bungie Harassment Over ‘Destiny 2’ Has Been Scarier Than Previously Reported

New details continue to emerge about the harassment employees at Bungie have been subjected to from individual Destiny 2 players, which has led to a string of lawsuits aimed at unmasking the individuals responsible, and holding them to account.

A new report in The Record, a Canadian news site, has revealed new details about harassment employees received that included their home addresses, personal phone numbers and terrifying, racist voicemails.

While the article does bring up the previously reported case of a player who made threats to burn down Bungie, move near its employees, deeming them “not safe,” there’s another, new incident reported here. It made Canadian news because Bungie has petitioned a Waterloo-based anonymous texting service, TextNow, to unmask an individual who made threats against their employees.

The case in question revolved around an employee who posted tweets featuring well-known black creator Uhmaayyze, a freestyle rapper whom Bungie partnered with to showcase its community. The day this tweet went live, the harassment began.

• An anonymous account tweeted threats to kill Bungie employees.
• Several Bungie employees started getting voicemails and text messages on their private, unlisted numbers which contained racial slurs.
• One voicemail had an individual who called themselves “Brian” request “N-word killing” DLC be added to Destiny 2, and he identified himself as a member of a right-wing social network. These messages were also conveyed to the employee’s spouse via text message, who also works for Bungie.
• Another voicemail was left saying to “enjoy your pizza,” and a pizza was delivered to their unlisted home address. This prompted them to call local police and file a report, and raised concerns about “swatting,” the practice of calling a SWAT team to someone’s house with a fake report once their address is known, or further danger from the specific individual themselves.

What’s not clear is what’s happening with this specific case, as even though the judge has granted the unmasking request, this is not one of the lawsuits Bungie has filed against an individual. It’s possible that comes later, or in this case, it could turn into something criminal if that information is given over to the police.

Bungie is currently in locked-down radio silent mode when it comes to the vast majority of its employees communicating about the game on social media. Recently, they reported they were attempting to figure out new ways to communicate safely with fans going forward. There has been a small pocket of pushback against Bungie’s recent stances on harassment and the lawsuits they filed, with some dismissing it as just “trolling” or “kids making jokes,” but the more details emerge about the different forms this has taken, the more it’s clear just how serious this is.

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