Banned On Pokemon GO? Time To Undo And Fix

Niantic's revealed that they've made a few adjustments to the way they ban people in Pokemon GO. A variety of players have reported getting banned without reason in Pokemon GO in the last several weeks. Now Niantic's made clear that they've heard the complaints and that they're aiming to reverse the bans wherever possible – just so long as you've been banned on accident, instead of for a real, bannable offense.

"We're investigating reports that some players are being incorrectly flagged by our systems and receiving punishments on their accounts. We will share an update as soon as we are able," said Niantic Support. "As an update to our investigation into Trainers erroneously receiving punishments, we are continuing to investigate these reports and removing punishments and Strike counts where appropriate."

It would appear that "offenses" that've triggered false positives – or whatever you'd like to call it – are such oddities as having an iPhone with iOS 12. If, however, you've used a GPS joystick or tried to tell the game that you're actually in China when you live in New York City, you'll probably still be banned.

Shadowbanning is the sort of a ban where you can still play, but you can't do EVERYTHING in the game. If you're shadowbanned – for whatever reason – you'll see all Pokemon except for Generation 5 Pokemon spawns. If you're shadowbanned, you'll likely be un-banned soon.

One part of this situation that might SEEM like a shadowban right now but actually isn't, is the ability to play in the Pokemon GO Battle League. That's actually just down. If you're seeing GO Battle League is not available right now, you're not alone. That's down for everyone.

What's interesting right now is how Niantic decides if a player's been banned for a real offense or if they've been banned by mistake. If you believe you've been banned without a good reason, now's the time to report said ban to Niantic. There's a better chance right now that you'll get un-banned than ever before – again, assuming you've not actually broken the rules.