Pokémon Go mobile players are outraged that a digital marker from the game is on Little St. James Island, which belonged to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Developers from Niantic have responded.
Pokémon Go mobile players are outraged that a digital marker from the game is on Little St. James Island, which belonged to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Developers from Niantic have responded.
Little St. James Island was the center of many of the crimes Jeffrey Epstein was accused of. The island is off-limits to most people, but players have discovered a Pokestop on it where they can catch Pikachu and other Pokémon, Polygon reports .
In Pokémon Go, players can catch and battle digital creatures while visiting real-world locations. Typically, these attractions are limited to central areas that are safe and easy to explore. But fans can also manually add Pokémon Go stops.
Niantic developers are usually quick to remove markers placed in dangerous locations, but fans of the game first noticed a Pokémon Go stop located near a sundial on Little St. James Island about a year ago. It's unclear when the location first appeared in the game, although estimates based on Ingress data (the location-based AR engine for Pokémon Go) suggest it was around 2020 or 2021 or earlier.
Players who changed their geolocation and made the game believe that they were physically on Epstein Island reported that regular Pokémon appeared in this location.
It is noted that the Pokestop from the island of Little St. James disappeared around February 9. Probably due to the recently published 3.5 million new Epstein files, curiosity about the location increased, and the developers decided not to ignore calls to remove the marker. Kotaku indicates that over the past week, players have been visiting Little St. James en masse in virtual space.
Fans also began searching for references to Pokémon Go in Epstein's files and found that he was passionate about the game. In one conversation, Epstein urged an interviewee to consider creating an app similar to Niantic's.
"I think an app for you that allows people to look at their phones and see each other's auras would take the market by storm. When you get back tonight, launch the app and imagine," Epstein suggested.
