Niantic

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Niantic, Inc. is an American software development company based in San Francisco. Niantic is best known for developing the augmented reality mobile games Ingress, Pokémon Go, and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. The company was formed as Niantic Labs in 2010 as an internal startup within Google. The company became an independent entity in October 2015. It has offices in San Francisco, Bellevue, Los Angeles, Sunnyvale, Hong Kong, Tokyo and London.[1]

Racist accusation to Pokémon Go

A Pokemon Go player has accused the game and its developer Niantic of putting Poke Stops, real-world locations where players get items, in predominately white neighborhoods. Aura Bogado, an environmental reporter for news outlet Grist, began to notice the issue when the game was released on July 2016.

She said when walking around Long Beach, California, which is 50 per cent white, she noticed there were far more Poke Stops than in her Los Angeles neighborhood, comprised of mainly minorities. Bogado created the hashtag #mypokehood to crowdsource and document Poke Stop locations. As results came in, Bogado began to confirm her suspicion that minority-heavy areas had fewer Poke Stops.[2]

Urban Institute researchers found an average of 55 PokéStops in majority white neighborhoods and 19 in majority black neighborhoods. The Belleville News-Democrat found that pattern repeated itself in African-American sections of Detroit, Miami and Chicago.

Similarly, New York boroughs Brooklyn and Queens, both of which have high numbers of Hispanic and black residents, had significantly fewer PokéStops than in Manhattan and white and Asian neighborhoods.[3]

However, this disparity may just be the result of the game developer Niantic's use of a previous game that allowed users to mark real-life locations as in-game battle sites. The Urban Institute calls the disparity 'redlining', which is a term meaning a community that is cut off from essential services due to ethnic make up or race. Because their are fewer stops in these neighborhoods, residents find it more difficult to play and participate in the game.[2]

Support for Black Lives Matter Movement

On June 3, 2020, Niantic tweeted out its support of the Black Lives Matter movement and the Black community. On the same day, CEO John Hanke published a blog post outlining the company’s plans for action. Off the bat, Niantic offers personal assistance to those who need it within the company, even for those who feel like they “can’t stay in your place of residence.”

After that, Hanke discusses how to take the company’s next step after its commitment to helping players explore the world, get into shape, and make friends through its games. Niantic will fund projects by black creators and help to promote them in order to reach a mass audience. The goal is to increase exposure of stories and points of view that don’t often get heard.[4]

Increasing diversity within

Donations and support

Providing more opportunities

Diversity and Inclusion Council

Encouraging engagement companywide

Looking to the future


References

  1. Niantic (company). Wikipedia. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Rosenblatt, Kalhan (2016). Why are there so many more Poke Stops and gyms in white neighborhoods than black?. Daily Mail. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  3. Akhtar, Allana (2016). Is Pokémon Go racist? How the app may be redlining communities of color. USA Today. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  4. Ashtear, Dominick (2020), Niantic takes massive action against racial injustice, pledges support, money. Nintendo Enthusiast. Retrieved January 18, 2021.