Online video games give players platforms to “pwn noobs” and talk trash in virtual arenas. But if you cross a line, they can also earn you an arrest warrant hand-delivered by federal law enforcement.
According to a criminal complaint filed by a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent on September 21, 2026, this is what led to the arrest of Edward Lee Frith. He is charged under 18 U.S.C. § 875(c), which prohibits transmitting in interstate or foreign commerce a communication containing a threat to kidnap or injure another person. The charges came after Frith allegedly made comments while on the Epic Games platform that he’d “probably end up killing a cop” if he were ever arrested and that if the FBI showed up at his door, he’d “shoot them M***erf*****s too.”
Frith’s arrest once again highlights the delineation between First Amendment free speech rights and facing charges for making true threats. Epic Games sent audio recordings of Frith’s expressed intent to cause real harm to the FBI through a voluntary emergency disclosure. Is it ironic that a game company best known for gruesomely violent virtual shooters that reward the last person standing turned in a player for what he said? Maybe, but some would argue it’s worth it, given the potential alternative outcomes that may have stemmed from it going unreported.
Time To Jump Out of the Battle Bus!
With estimated gross revenue of over $5.6 billion annually, Epic Games is one of the most successful video game companies. In addition to developing and licensing the Unreal Engine game engine and games like the Gears of War franchise, Epic also sells games from other publishers on its Epic Games site.
Their biggest ongoing success remains the online game Fortnite. While several variants are now available, including a Lego version, the original Fortnite Battle Royale remains massively popular, with hundreds of millions of registered online players and cross-promotions with games like Resident Evil Requiem and TV shows like “Stranger Things.” A hundred gamers, often selected randomly, parachute from a flying bus to an island. Once they land, players build structures, scavenge weapons, and try to eliminate the other 99 players as the island’s safe zone slowly shrinks, pushing survivors toward inevitable conflict at the center.
As any player of pretty much any online game that allows open communication can tell you, trash talk of all imaginable kinds is standard. Given that many players are teenagers, tweens, or even younger, social immaturity can lead to hurtful and often vicious commentary. It’s also true that legal adults are not above wallowing in the muck with others.
Like other popular online platforms, Epic Games sets forth Terms of Service (TOS) for its users and provides ways to report violations and take action. Its “Ecosystem Rules” promise consequences that include warnings, temporary bans and suspensions, and even a permanent ban from using any Epic Games licensed product. In addition, the TOS notes that Epic may also pursue other legal remedies for violations by providing information and evidence to relevant law enforcement authorities. Frith learned the hard way that this wasn’t an idle threat from Epic.
A Tough Way To Discover That the First Amendment’s Protections Aren’t Absolute
Among other rights, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects free speech. As written and supported through numerous Supreme Court decisions, most speech is protected from criminal prosecution.
Most.
The Court has also ruled that 1A doesn’t cover speech that’s considered a true threat. Something is considered a true threat if it communicates a serious expression of the intent to commit an act of unlawful violence to a particular individual or group of individuals, which can include threats against national security. Posting online that you think your neighbor is a jerk for letting their dog pee on your azaleas is protected speech. Writing that you’re going to kill them if it happens one more time could cross into true threat territory, ate least if listeners would perceive the statement as threatening violence.
Epic was alerted that someone with the username “WagesOfNinja” had made a series of concerning statements while on the platform. Captured audio included the following:
- “letting all my rage out because i want to literally murder somebody”
- “i think about it every day every day i think about murdering somebody in cold blood but i don't do it because i like my freedom i'd rather die than go to prison i'll tell you that”
- “Yeah, I'm pretty sure that if I did get arrested for something like that, I'd probably end up killing a cop, and then I'd kill myself”
- “Let's see if the FBI is going to show up at my door because I'll shoot them m****ef*****rs too”
- “I'm going to become a murderer one day”
- “And I'm going to f*****g kill people”
- “It's a f*****g black cloud, a very specific person or small group of people who have chosen to try to make my life absolutely hell”
- “so one day i'm going to turn into that person just like the people you see on the f*****g videos on youtube where they fucking run up to the police officer and they have no reason to at all and then they make the police kill them i'm gonna be that guy”
After identifying Frith through the legal name on file, Epic sent transcripts and audio files of his statements to the FBI National Threat Operations Section (NTOS) Exigent Threat Research and Analysis Crisis Team (EXTRACT) on September 20, 2026. While threatening to kill someone while actively playing a game that involves, well, killing virtual people might not get someone more than a warning or a suspension, specifically targeting local and federal law enforcement repeatedly is not likely to be dismissed as a “heat of the moment” thing.
A conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 875(c) carries a potential fine of up to $250,000 and up to five years in federal prison. It seems the federal government’s TOS carries harsher penalties than Epic’s.
