The FBI arrested a Fortnite player last week after Epic reported threats he made over voice chat.
Epic reported Edward Frith, an avid Fortnite player from Alabama, over alarming messages spoken while playing Fortnite. He was later arrested when the FBI turned up at his house.
According to the affidavit (reported by Aftermath), Frith, who went by the username “WagesOfNinja,” said he was letting all his rage out because he wanted to “literally murder somebody” and that he thinks about killing “every day.”
“Let’s see if the FBI is going to show up at my door because I’ll shoot them motherf****rs too,” Frith said, before the FBI showed up at his door. Frith’s other comments were just as disturbing, with the Fortnite player suggesting he was planning to end his life by charging at police.
Epic made what was described as a “voluntary emergency disclosure” to the FBI National Threat Operations Section (NTOS) Exigent Threat Research and Analysis Crisis Team (EXTRACT), relating to the statements. The developer then provided the FBI with an audio recording and transcript of the threats.
The Alabama resident was indicted for violating Interstate Threatening Communications on September 23. He was remanded into custody while awaiting a trial, after entering a plea of “not guilty” on September 24.
Epic Games announced a new voice reporting system for Fortnite in November 2023. The system allows players to clip audio and anonymously file a report whenever they catch another player violating the community rules.
“The only way Epic ever receives a copy of the audio clip is if voice reporting is on and a participant affirmatively reports the voice chat using the in-game voice reporting feature,” Epic said at the time.
Once reported, the last five minutes of communications are captured and the audio file is sent to Epic’s moderation team to review. Depending on the severity of the communications, players can face bans or, in this case, being reported to the feds.
Likewise, Fortnite players can report text chat, which is stored for 30 days. The Fortnite developer also uses autonomous systems to detect harmful language, such as “self-harm, child endangerment, and threats of real-world violence.”
Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images.
