Niantic has announced that new enforcement of their player guidelines and terms of service is coming to all Niantic games including Pokémon GO. It is likely that they will be targeting players that are location spoofing.

PLAYER WARNING:

Niantic has increased the price of Remote Raid Passes, restricted Four-star Raid Battles to Raid Passes and Premium Battle Passes only and made players using Remote Raid Passes and Incense less effective. If there are dangerous storms, health restrictions or other reasons that would endanger you playing Pokémon GO for a time limited event, please do not force yourself to venture out to participate in that event. Damage to devices may also occur in extreme heat and cold weather conditions.

An Update on Niantic’s Gameplay Policy Enforcement

We want to start this note by thanking you, our players, for your patience and understanding as we continuously work to facilitate a fun and fair environment for everyone. We've heard your feedback and feel your frustration about how cheating behaviors negatively impact your gameplay experience.

It has been a little while since our most recent update from the beginning of 2021 on our efforts to prevent cheating in our games and we wanted to share what we have been working on.

Our last post was focused primarily on sharing a broad overview of the actions we had taken to punish accounts we found to be cheating in multiple Niantic games. Since then, we’ve invested in becoming better at observing cheating behaviors, and can now more reliably pinpoint these activities with higher speed and accuracy, preventing legitimate players from being punished incorrectly.

As a result, we will be ramping up enforcement against these behaviors across our games, and rolling out our improved approach to anti-cheat. We are starting now by taking action against a number of accounts who we found to be in violation of our terms of service or player guidelines during recent in-game events in Pokémon GO.

This is only the first step in implementing our improved cheating behavior detection and enforcement systems. These improvements will be integrated into all Niantic games to detect and punish players on a consistent and ongoing basis, rather than in waves, as we have in the past.

Looking ahead, we’ll continue to improve our methods and processes to ensure we’re staying ahead of any new behaviors that allow players to unfairly exploit game rules.

Please only use the official versions of our games available on the Google Play Store, Apple App Store and Samsung Galaxy Store; and note that we do not support jailbroken or rooted devices or third-party apps.

The Niantic team

Source: https://nianticlabs.com/blog/gameplay-policy-enforcement-update/

Niantic Player Guidelines - As of June 22nd, 2022

We want our games to be a fun and safe experience for all players and for everyone out in the real world where the game is played. Following these guidelines will help ensure you and other players have a great experience. Note that violations can result in the permanent suspension of your account. In short, treat others as you would like to be treated. Remember that certain interactions that seem harmless or fun to you may be perceived differently by bystanders or other players.

If you are around other players who are violating these guidelines, please remove yourself from the situation and don’t engage. Report the situation to us through the in-app support options or through our web-based help centers.

Below are some guidelines to keep in mind:

1 - Treat others with respect

Unlike many other games, you may actually meet the people you play with in real life. It’s in everyone’s best interest to keep things courteous and fun for all. Respect other players and other people, both in the game and in the real world.

Here are a few principles of respect to keep in mind:

• Never defame, abuse, harass, harm, stalk, or threaten another player.
• Never violate the legal rights (including the rights of privacy and publicity) of others.
• Never impersonate other players or Niantic staff.
• Never take photos or videos of other players unless you have their explicit permission.
• Never expose players’ identities without their consent (“dox”). This includes any information about another user’s identity, including their name, phone number, email address or physical address, even if a player discloses that info first.

2 - Stay aware of your surroundings and adhere to the rules of the human world

Our games are designed to be played outdoors. As with any outdoor activity like hiking, biking, or playing sports in a park, we encourage everyone to exercise caution and play safely. Here are some additional considerations as you traverse the real world:

• Remain aware of your environment and avoid going into any inappropriate or dangerous areas, or any area where you are not permitted to be. Do not trespass.
• When walking, players should remain aware of hazards, including other pedestrians, traffic, and obstacles.
• As with any mobile app, our games should not be operated while driving a vehicle.
• For our games that allow children to play: parents should guide and supervise their children’s use of the product, including where to play and how to use a mobile phone app safely.

3 - Avoid inappropriate content

We may review the content you create within our products, particularly if another player has flagged it, and we may remove it if we believe it’s inappropriate.

Inappropriate content may include:

• sexual or pornographic content,
• obscenities or derogatory content,
• content that promotes illegal activity,
• hate speech or content that promotes hatred against members of a protected group,
• content posted with the intent to abuse or harass another player,
• or spam.
• Each game has an intended age rating which you can find in the App Store or Google Play Store listing. Keep this age rating in mind when sharing content and use discretion when interacting with others.

4 - No cheating

Don’t do it. Play fair. Our games are meant to be played on mobile devices and get you outside to have adventures in the real world. Don’t deny yourself or someone else of an authentic gameplay experience by cheating.

Unfortunately, methods of cheating are limited only by cheaters’ imaginations, and include the following:

• using modified or unofficial software,
• playing with multiple accounts (one account per player),
• using tools or techniques to alter or falsify your location (“spoofing”),
• sharing accounts,
• intentionally exploiting a bug to gain reward,
• abusing refund policy and mechanism,
• buying or selling in-game currency or items on third-party platforms,
• buying/selling/trading accounts,
• or any other activity that is in violation of Niantic’s Terms of Service, available here: https://nianticlabs.com/terms/

How we enforce the Terms of Service and these guidelines.

We will review reported or flagged player accounts and content and will determine whether or not they violate the Terms of Service and/or these guidelines. Accounts are penalized for violations of the Terms of Service and/or these guidelines. We may issue a warning, degrade your gameplay experience, suspend your account, or permanently terminate your account without warning.

Source: https://nianticlabs.com/guidelines/