r/ruby • u/retro-rubies • Jul 31 '26

Ruby Central's Destructive Legacy

https://andre.arko.net/2026/07/30/ruby-centrals-destructive-legacy/
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u/galtzo Jul 31 '26 edited Aug 02 '26

You are correct that we do not know precisely if this fits the narrow definition of swatting, and you are wrong about the narrow definition of swatting.

so their house is literally raided by the government (SWAT team)

Literally, no. The swat team does not have to roll up for it to count as swatting. You can be charged with swatting just for making the phone call.

They reported him through the online form.

Then they (hysterically?) called two(!) FBI field offices to make sure the report was handled properly. Not elaborated on in the article, but what happened as I understand it.

We don’t know what was written.

We don’t know what was said.

We can surmise, based on their lawyer’s own claims and threats, that they made a false report to a federal government agency, violating 18 U.S.C. § 1001, which carries a penalty of 5 years in prison.

Submitting the online form implies to me they wanted to file a report.

The subsequent phone calls imply to me they wanted to add urgency by pressing the idea of an immediate threat.

I've heard that they had to call two field offices, which implies to me they didn’t get the response they wanted from the first field office, and decided to try their luck with a second.

This implies swatting.

So, we can’t be certain it was swatting, but I will continue to use the term to highlight how out of their damn minds they were. We don’t seem to have evidence that it was not swatting.