Niantic has confirmed that its system is erroneously flagging some Pokémon GO players and incorrectly soft banning their accounts. The company says it is currently investigating the issue after it impacted several accounts, particularly on iPhones running iOS 12 (via Eurogamer.net).
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.
— Niantic Support (@NianticHelp) June 15, 2020
According to reports, thousands of players may have received incorrect bans for cheating, though they have not violated any rules. Some of these players took to Reddit over the past couple of days to report the issue after they received a seven-day soft ban warning via the app. This warning is typically issued to players caught cheating and it represents the first offense. Also, receiving this ban can limit the number of Pokémon a player can find in the game. Over the long term, as this sort of strike piles up, players can be permanently banned.
It remains to be seen now when affected accounts will be restored. Niantic promises to share more details when the issue is resolved.