Overview
- Niantic confirmed this week that it removed the Little Saint James PokéStop after it drew attention tied to newly released DOJ files.
- Players had been accessing the location by GPS spoofing to “visit” and spin the stop, a practice that violates Pokémon GO’s terms of service.
- The point of interest was labeled Sun Clock or Sun Dial and its placement on a private, restricted property conflicted with Niantic’s safe pedestrian access rule.
- Reporting traces the stop’s origin to an Ingress portal likely submitted between 2020 and 2021, which then appeared in Pokémon GO via Niantic’s shared location database.
- DOJ-released emails from July 13, 2016 show Jeffrey Epstein urging associates to check out Pokémon GO, describing it as an early augmented reality game.