Gamers rarely get in contact with activism in the form of protests. By organizing a protest within the game "Fifa World" on the platform Roblox, LGBT+ organization All Out engaged a completely new audience and pioneered a new way of activism in the digital age, allowing millions of gamers to take a stand for LGBT+ rights without the fear of repercussions.

The FIFA World Cup 2022 took place in Qatar, which has long been considered to be one of the unsafest places in the world for members of the LGBT+ community. Any homosexual act can be punished with up to three years in prison or the death penalty. And FIFA didn't take any action to ensure the safety of LGBT+ football fans.

Since protesting for LGBT+ rights in Qatar is impossible, All Out was looking for a safe way to take a stand against the abuse of LGBT+ rights in Qatar and pressure FIFA to take action.

Ahead of the World Cup, FIFA launched “FIFA World” on Roblox, a virtual replica of host country Qatar. This game world provided an opportunity for the first global protest in the metaverse: By taking the protest to Roblox, we encouraged gamers to take a stand for LGBT+ rights: Being able to protest from the comfort of their home as an avatar allowe them to raise their voice in a safe space without the fear of repercussions.

The metaverse protest helped All Out to get in touch with a new and younger audience – namely gamers – and inspire them to take action in a way that fits them.

Because protesting in real Qatar is illegal, we organized a protest in virtual Qatar: In the game "FIFA World" on the metaverse / gaming platform Roblox. We took over the center stage of FIFA’s headquarters in the metaverse and created a protest toolkit that allowed activists from around the world to take a stand against the hate without the fear of repercussions.

Two days before the start of the tournament, we gathered activists from around the globe and took over the center stage of FIFA World - the Fifa game world on Roblox that launched a month before. To ensure our protest is not banned, we spread the message across seventeen avatars, each protester carrying a single letter. Together, they formed the message: FIFA UNPLAY THE HATE.

Following the kick-off, we invited everyone to take to the Metaverse and protest. To make participating as easy as possible, we created virtual protest shirts and even accounts with ready-made avatars – so everyone could join the protest from the safety of their home.

- All Out was able to develop a new interest group – gamers – directly through the protest on roblox and through coverage in tech blogs etc, thus building a new (gamer) community to support LGBT+ Rights and the NGO.

- The metaverse protest has pioneered a new way for activism in the digital age, using a gaming context, allowing more people than ever to take action without the fear of repercussions.

- approx. 2000 people used our toolkit to protest during the world cup as individuals or groups.

- 2 Million impressions of earned media

- Engagement with All Out Social Channels increased by 30%.

- Full Media Coverage by all big media outlets in Switzerland, Fifa's location.

- International coverage from major media around the globe (from Germany to Brasil, US, Japan, Vietnam, China) resulting in total approx. 1.4 Million media buying equivalent through earned media