We are all happy with Niantic to do something about fair play in Pokemon Go, Wizards United and Ingress. We also understand, that this can lead to false positives in the detection of the false positives. What we can not accept is the fact, that Niantic ignores the fact, there could be a false positive.

We as a family play Pokemon Go since the beginning. First it was just my wife and me, who played since 2016. In the beginning of 2018, we got some devices to play for our two children. Our older daughter got a Xiaomi Redmi 5 and could play with it since then. Also she was not really happy, when the new friendship system came in place, since she used a PTC account and it was not possible to add friends for children with PTC accounts for more than a year. This was solved finally in August this year and my daughter finally could play the game as everyone else.

However, along came the September 2019. It was the 04. of September. When my daughter started her Pokemon Go game, she got a black screen accusing her to cheat and gave her a 7 day ban. I right away contacted Niantic to get an explaination and since then I am writing them daily. The answers I got was always the same:

We're committed to maintaining the state of Pokémon GO and our community of Trainers. People who violate the Pokémon GO Terms of Service (including by using third party software and other cheats) may have their gameplay affected and may not be able to see all the Pokémon around them. As long as you're abiding by the Terms of Service (https://www.nianticlabs.com/terms/ and Player Guidelines (https://nianticlabs.com/guidelines/en there should not be any reason for concern.

My requests for an explaination stayed unanswered. And even when I asked for help what  app causes the issues with screenshots, there was no help. Always the same answer. So 7 days passed and nothing changed. The ban stayed in place. The only answer I got now was:

We're unable to provide any additional information or support related to this. Please follow the Pokémon GO Terms of Service and Trainer Guidelines, including discontinuing use of third-party apps, your gameplay will return to normal eventually.

After 13 days then my daughter got a 30 days ban and since then can not play the game at all anymore. And since then I brought the Niantic Support evidence there is something wrong with the anti-cheat system, but all the answers I got was:

I'm sorry but we cannot do anything with regards to the strike what was given on the account, our anti-cheat systems are extremely accurate and this case is now closed.

Once the ban is lifted the user will be able to access Pokémon GO as usual. We will no longer reply to any further inquiries regarding this.

This is not acceptable. And the evidence in the internet is at least worth to investigate if not overwelmingly a sign, the system is not working.

Here a list of Reddid threads about the issue:

7 days strike from - 05.09.2019

30 days ban on redmi 5 xiamoi - 24.09.2019

Ban on Xiaomi - 26.09.2019

It's assumed, game booser cause the issue:

psa avoid using game boosters - 21.09.2019

People already try to get in contact with Niantic via twitter:

Twitter attempt to contact Niantic

Also a well known PvP player (PogoKieng) asks Niantic via Twitter, if this is true:

Pogokieng on Twitter

Till now, every attempt to get Niantic involved in this, is ignored. Out there are meanwhile some article about the issue, but Niantic also ignores this.

With this petition we want to:

1. Get a statement from Niantic

2. Get Niantic to revoce all banns regarding this issue, if it shows, the issue is a false positive / if it shows, the issue is caused by Xiaomi and not the users.

3. Prevent this from happening again. If we now accept the 30 days ban and do nothing about it, the next false positive will end for the affected users in a permanent ban. And if Niantic ignores this issue, there is no chance in the future to prevent this from happening again.

Niantic claims:

Our main priority with Pokémon GO is to provide a fair, fun, and safe experience for all players.

The words are nice, but it is not fair, if Niantic bans players from the game, while there is evidence they are banned people for no reason / caused by a false positive. Here Niantic has to react instead of ignoring players.

If you are banned by Niantic without a reason, using a Xiami Redmi 5 with MIUI 10.3.2.0, please also fill this form:

Form for affected users

Further links to article about the issue:

piunikaweb.com - pokemon-go-players-getting-banned-for-no-reason

www.androidpolice.com - xiaomi-users-allege-they-are-being-banned-from-pokemon-go/

www.ubergizmo.com - xiaomi-users-banned-in-pokemon-go

mein-mmo.de - pokemon-go-hunderte-spieler-xiaomi (German)

Please also support this petition, if you are not affected by the ban, because the next ban could hit you without a reason.