Wayspot appeal falsely rejected for 'third party photo'

[pigeonfm]

Title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15
Description: Befindet sich im Luftfahrtmuseum Hannover-Laatzen // Located in the Aviation Museum of Hannover-Laatzen
Supplemental: Sicherer zugang im öffentlichen museum // Safely accessible in a public museum

This was an older submission of mine that was only rejected for inaccurate description/bad grammar in desc. (I am not German, don’t speak German, I included some translation just for courtesy to the community reviewers). I just decided to appeal a couple days ago (yes, I know) and, to my shock the appeal was rejected because they have deemed my photo was stolen from an external source, and also some part of my submission is abusing, ridiculing, or harassing a specific person or group?

Here is the submission:

Just to get it out of the way, how on earth is this submission or my appeal abusing, ridiculing, or harassing a specific person or group? Besides, that would be a major violation of Wayfarer terms, bannable as far as I know. Is my account now at risk because of this appeal reviewer’s decision?

Now to the image, when I reverse search the primary photo, I get this:

Not sure how “Exact matches” works because clearly all of those images are not the same, something cannot possibly be an ‘exact match’ to multiple different images.

Below, I am going to post on the left my submitted image, and on the right the images it is supposedly identical to:

The top result, from the Facebook post dated Apr 25, 2025:

The second result, from the ‘Team-BHP’ post May 7, 2023:

The third result, from Airliners. net:

I won’t go on to the remaining images because they are even less of a match. The one I specifically want to talk about is the first - the Facebook image. First, I do not have a Facebook account, and I do not know the individual who posted that image on Facebook. Second, that Facebook post was 8 months after my original submission (obviously, it was before my appeal). Lastly, if you actually look at the two photos, mine has a wider crop than the Facebook image. The image I submitted I took myself, and by coincidence someone else who visited the same museum many months after me took their own photo from almost the same angle and uploaded it to Facebook.

Whatever it’s worth, here are photos of my phone with the submitted photos (both primary and supplemental) and their timestamps:

Furthermore, here is even a photo of my receipt for purchasing tickets to the museum that day:

I don’t know how else or what else I’d need to prove that I actually went to this museum on Aug 23, 2024, and took this photo myself Aug 23, 2024, and submitted this wayspot Aug 23, 2024.

So…is there any avenue to get this appeal looked at again? Or am I just SOL because the appeal reviewer did the briefest glance at Google Lens and thinks I ripped this picture off a Facebook post that didn’t exist until 8 months after my submission?

And no, I cannot just go resubmit because I am from the US and was only visiting.

Thanks y’all.

Edit: added a space to Airliners. net so it isn’t a link lol

[salixsorbus]

Welcome to the forums

Don’t worry about the abuse text, as this is standard when any abuse is found, such as using a third-party photo. It means nothing in this case beyond repeating that you used a third-party photo. That is what you need to address (and may have done, but I wanted to explain the “abuse” text first).

The abuse text is extremely badly phrased.

[pigeonfm]

Thanks for the welcome lol I never have used the forums here because I’ve never had a decision on a wayspot (from either the community or Niantic) so egregious (imo) before.

And thanks for the clarification on the abuse text, they definitely need to rephrase it.

[salixsorbus]

They won’t, although they need to. This issue crops up a lot.

You have come to the right place for appealing to Niantic. Only Niantic staff can give you an answer; everyone else (such as myself) can advise.

I recommend changing the subject of the thread to something like "Wayspot appeal falsely rejected for ‘third party photo’.

[salixsorbus]

Your photo doesn’t match the one from Facebook (or any of the others) - the lighting is different including the shadows.

Forgetting what your reverse image search picked up, since Niantic might have found something you didn’t, did you post your main image anywhere on any social media after submitting the wayspot. Since it was months ago, this is possible. if you did, the date of that posting would be useful.

[pigeonfm]

Good suggestion, I have shortened the title to focus on the bigger issue

[pigeonfm]

Right, no match at all. Although I would understand the argument lighting/colors/etc. could possibly be edited from an original image, the crop is unarguable to me. If my photo has a wider crop than what it is ‘copied’ from, then it is not possibly copied from it.

And no, I did not post the main image anywhere, not publicly at least. If I possibly shared it in a dm to someone, I don’t remember. The only thing I can think of is that the image is backed up to the cloud (Google). But if Niantic is able to access those images…idk what to say about that.

[pigeonfm]

Alright, well I just received an email telling me my submission is now accepted. That was very quick. Whoever at Niantic read through my post here and reversed the decision, thank you very much. o7

[cyndiepooh]

Wow, that was fast!

Do you have the option to mark your statement that it has been accepted as the solution? That would let people know you don’t still need help.

Welcome to the forum!

[pigeonfm]

Thank you lol. Yes, I was debating doing that but I wasn’t sure if a comment from a Niantic member was imminent after that email. I have marked it now.

[cyndiepooh]

Sometimes they comment, but often they just fix it.