Unofficial clones, such as Club Penguin Online and Club Penguin Rewritten, grew in popularity and activity at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the BBC said, but Disney was constantly trying to shut them down. Club Penguin Online was forced offline in 2020, with one person arrested “on suspicion of possessing obscene images of children”, the BBC reported. Once this site was down, players reportedly moved to Club Penguin Rewritten. A BBC poll found that Club Penguin Online was found to have poor moderation, allowing “homophobic, anti-Semitic and sexist messages” on the site. A Club Penguin Rewritten user told BCC that Club Penguin Rewritten was just as “unsafe” due to a lack of moderation. The Club Penguin Rewritten website has since been acquired by the London Police Intellectual Property Unit. Users browsing the site are greeted with this image. Image: London City Police Three others were arrested in connection with the Club Penguin Rewritten, “on suspicion of distributing copyright infringing material”. All three were released pending an investigation, Detective Daryl Fryat of London Police Department said in a statement sent by email to Polygon. “Following a complaint under copyright law, PIPCU has seized a gambling site as part of an ongoing search for the site,” said Fryatt. The site has since been taken over by the London Police Intellectual Property Unit as part of the ongoing “Operative Creative” campaign, launched in 2013 to combat alleged copyright infringement on the internet. A message from London police now appears on the Club Penguin Rewritten website: “This site has been acquired by Operation Creative, Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU).” Polygon turned to Disney for comment.
