London police seize Club Penguin clone site, three suspects arrested

London police arrested three people over an unofficial clone of Disney’s shuttered but once immensely popular website Club Penguin. It was shut down Club PenguinFollow-up Club Penguin IslandClones were first discovered in 2018 and 2017 respectively. In 2005, the penguin-based social media hub for children was launched. Extremely It is very popular. At its height, there were more than 200,000,000 registered users.

Unofficial clones, like Club Penguin Online Club Penguin RewrittenAccording to BBC, the popularity of the COVID-19 pandemic increased at the start, BBC stated, however, Disney continues to try and shut down the movement. Club Penguin Online was forced offline in 2020, with one person arrested “on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children,” the BBC reported. After that site was shut down, the BBC reported that players moved to another website. Club Penguin Rewritten.

A BBC investigation revealed that Club Penguin Online was found to have poor moderation, allowing “homophobic, anti-Semitic and sexual messages” on the site. One Club Penguin RewrittenThe user informed the BCC Club Penguin Rewritten was similarly “unsafe” due to a lack of moderation.

City of London Police

The investigation led to the arrest of three additional people. Club Penguin Rewritten, on “on suspicion of distributing materials infringing copyright.” All three have been released pending investigation, London detective constable Daryl Fryatt told Polygon in an emailed statement.

“Following a complaint under copyright law, PIPCU have seized a gaming website as part of an ongoing investigation into the site,” Fryatt said.

The website has since been taken over by London police’s intellectual crime unit as part of the ongoing “Operative Creative” campaign, which kicked off in 2013 and with the goal of combating alleged copyright infringement online. On the website, a London police message is displayed. Club Penguin Rewritten website: “This site has been taken over by Operation Creative, Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU).”

Polygon reached out to Disney in order for comments.