'Pokémon Go' Ban Wave: Shadowbans to Be Temporary

By Faith Baquirquir, Christian Post Contributor Thursday, June 08, 2017

"Pokemon GO" developers over at Niantic Labs are at it again with banning players caught cheating in the game, but this time, they have a new feature called "shadowbanning," an anti-cheat update released last month.

So, how does shadowbanning work?

In a nutshell, it bans players who get caught using bots and third-party applications that affect one's gameplay, as well as of others, negatively. According to Niantic's post on Reddit, those who will violate the game's Terms of Service "may have their gameplay affected and may not be able to see all the Pokémon around them."

This means that when players get shadowbanned, they will still be able to play the game, but they will only be able to see and catch the most common Pokemon, just like Pidgey, Geodude, and Magikarp.

Moreover, the Reddit post said: "While we cannot discuss the systems implemented, we can confirm that we are constantly refining new ways to ensure the integrity of the game in order to keep it fun and fair for all Trainers."

As to how long a player can get shadowbanned, Niantic Support posted a tweet regarding the issue, saying: "It's temporary, as long as you comply with Pokémon GO Terms of Service & Trainer guidelines, including discontinuing use of 3rd-party apps."

In other words, as long as a player, who has been shadowbanned, gets back to playing the game fairly, the ban can be lifted.

According to Fox News, there are some cases in which Niantic will send players a warning if the system detects that they are cheating. There seems to be no notification once a player gets shadowbanned, though, but it probably will not take long for someone to realize that he/she has been flagged.

However, there seems to be one type of cheat that the shadowban feature has not been able to detect. According to the International Business Times, it is still not able to stop those players who are using GPS spoofing apps that enable them to teleport their trainers to other parts of the globe.

Niantic Labs has yet to address this issue.