In February 2024 the Digital Service Act (DSA) went into effect in the EU which requires services which allow user submitted content to report their moderation efforts as well as the systems in place to help with it. This also includes Ingress for which Niantic has released a transparency report for the year 2024 last month.

While the DSA is focused on the EU only and the data only includes content from users in the EU it still does give us a very interesting look behind the scenes of Niantic Support and their moderation. Note that this only includes moderation efforts for "user submitted content", which in Ingress should only be COMM messages and Ingress Missions, not violations against TOS. All other content submitted like Portals are handled by the Wayfarer or Campfire team and are not listed here either.

For content reported by users in the EU:
- 214 notices submitted by users for illegal content or policy (Niantic Player Guidelines) violations
- 200 notices led to content removal
- Median response time for notices: 53.3 hours
- Manual Review Only – No automated processing

For content from users in the EU that Niantic removed on their own initiative:
- Uses manual review only (no automated tools)
- 38,149 pieces of content were removed proactively by Niantic

Content removed in particular:
Spam: 17,878
Trademark/Copyright: 8,560
Low Quality: 6,144
Privacy Invasion: 2,589
Sexual/Hateful Content & Graphic Violence: 2,051
Defamatory Content: 436
Bullying & Harassment: 28
Dangerous/Unsafe Content: 68
Multiple Violations: 217

The DSA allows users to appeal moderation actions by Niantic, both actions taken against themselves (e.g. getting a warning for content that did not violate Player Guidelines) as well as action taken against others which the reporting user believe were not actioned on correctly (e.g. not removing a COMM message that violates Player Guidelines). In 2024, no user has made use of this mechanic.

Niantic also reports that there have been 13 suspensions from COMM for "accounts who repeatedly violate our policies" after having been issued a prior warning.

You can read through the DSA report from Ingress as well as all the other Niantic services through this link: https://nianticlabs.com/dsa-transparency

@IUENG_Extra

We continue the Media drops with "Cryptic_04", which contains a witness report from someone who claims to have seen two woman appearing from out of nowhere near the hospital.

Cryptic_04 Media details: https://ingress.plus/media/12546

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In "Cryptic_05" we find out that Akiras experiment in crossing into another universe was successful. While she made it over the bridge without any apparent issue, Devra seems to have been affected cognitively and was hospitalized. While Akira ran, she noticed that Machina behaved differently in this new universe, only appearing in Portals near her instead of propagating like in her origin universe.

Cryptic_05 Media details: https://ingress.plus/media/12547

@IUENG_Extra

Hank Johnson joins us in "Cryptic_06" via an entry into his research journal in which he writes down his thoughts about an unnamed Artifact, likely the same one IQTech is experimenting on and which leads to the propagation of Machina.

He notes that the artifact produces Glyph Sequences that reference balances like Order and Chaos and Creation and Destruction. He believes that Machina follows the same pattern, searching the Portal Network for "Chaos" it can end. Hank theorizes that if this counterpart is found, Machina will stop its expansion through the network.

That being said, as Machina is responsible for "creating" portals, it stands to reason that its counterpart creates decay.

(Note: Looking at a timeline, the events happening in these lore drops all occured around a year ago during the Cryptic Memories anomaly. While not impossible, it is unlikely that any change to Machina or other elements today will be teased by these drops from a year ago.)

Cryptic_06 Media details: https://ingress.plus/media/12548

@IUENG_Extra

"Cryptic_07" has dropped!

This time the Enlightened have the spotlight, proposing the usage of XM to treat neurodegeative diseases due to its ability to bridge connections in the brain and enhancing cognitive resillience.

Even though the author is part of the Enlightened they urge readers to look beyond faction borders to allow funding for this research.

Cryptic_07 Media details: https://ingress.plus/media/12549

@IUENG_Extra

"Cryptic_08" was released in the Portal Network today.

The media features a new discussion between Hank Johnson, Makoto and Agent Takumi.
They have found that the woman who appeared suddenly near an hospital and got recovered due to being unconscious really is Devra Bogdanovich.
Agent Takumi decides to stay with Devra and relay all info he can gather to the Resistance, while Hank and Makoto decide to start looking for Akira, the author of the dimensional shift experiments.

Cryptic_08 Media details: https://ingress.plus/media/12550

@IUENG_extra

A new series of media has begun spawning in the Portal Network, starting with "Buried_01".

A handwritten note by Hank Johnson tells about his stay with the Azmati, an Egyptian tribe with a very deep understanding of XM. This tribe had created an XM artifact "that represents Order and Death: a force that halts Chaos freezing it into permanence". This artifact was stolen, and the Azmati believe that IQTech is behind the theft.

In the second part, we read of Hank Johnson and Makoto's expedition to Egypt. Makoto has located the source of the signal at an IQTech facility hidden beneath an ancient military installation; it is probable that the source of the signal is the artifact itself. They've learned that the artifact is linked to a woman described as an embodiment of the Artifact's power.
The journal entry concludes with Hank's hope that if they can secure this woman's help, they might recover the Artifact and halt the ongoing Anomalies.

Buried_01 Media details: https://ingress.plus/media/12551

@IUENG_Extra

Wayfarer added a new menu section called "Submit" to their menu. At the top is an image that says "Submit a Wayspot in Pokemon GO" which, when clicked, immediately opens Pokemon GO and it's nomination screen.

While the image for Ingress is not visible (yet) we were already able to figure out that this new deeplink will also come to the scanner via the following link, which opens Ingress and the Portal Submission screen: https://link.ingress.com/?link=https://intel.ingress.com/nomination//

@IUENG_Extra

Ingress Prime has been updated to 2.163.1! 

In this release, the game engine has been upgraded for improved performance and bug fixes.

The update is rolling out to App Store and Play Store.

@IUENG_Extra

Agents that live in timezones that switched to summer time today are reporting issues logging in starting at 2300 local time which persist until midnight, after which these issues fix themselves. This is triggered by an older bug which doesn't play nice when the clock is set forward or backwards.

If you're affected, you can go into your devices settings and manually set your timezone to somewhere that didn't switch to summer time, like the US. Otherwise, just wait until midnight after which you should be able to play again.

@IUENG_Extra

Three free Niantic Beacons and three Toast Beacons are currently available in the store! If you don't have a Toast Beacon to place for Thia yet (see https://news.1rj.ru/str/IUENG/7079), you can grab these instead.

@IUENG_Extra

The scanner has started to advertise the upcoming +Theta anomalies in the Dispatch menu!

It is likely that this is just a way to make the anomalies more visible and not an indicator of an upcoming campaign, although we'll keep you posted if it does happen to be a special campaign!

@IUENG_Extra

Agents are reporting that Overclock hacks are currently failing to calibrate due to an outage of the Niantic Spatial map which holds the VPS data. At the moment, there is nothing you can do to get Overclock hacks to work, we will have to wait until the map is back up.

@IUENG_Extra

Reports are coming in that Overclock is working again!

@IUENG_Extra

The Ingress team shared an update about the transition to Niantic Spatial and resulting upcoming changes.

https://ingress.com/news/getting-ready-for-niantic-spatial

@IUENG_Extra

The Earth Day Bonus, which was planned for April 22nd, has seemingly been canceled.

@IUENG_Extra

Agents are reporting issues with logging into Ingress or performing actions in the Scanner.

@IUENG_Extra

The Scanner is slowly recovering with people being able to log in again.

@IUENG_Extra