Zwift Bans Rider for Exposing Zwift Cheat

Over the past few days there has been a lot of discussion about a rider exposing a Zwift cheat publicly. The cheat that was exposed is the ability to change your weight while in a race/event through the companion app. This will change your weight in game after 20 seconds or so, and if you change your weight before the race finishes, Zwift Power will not register. Zwift has stated that they can see these changes on their server, so it not is undetectable.

The rider that was banned, Luciano Pollastri has received a 30 day shadow ban, which basically means that the rider will not be able to interact with other Zwifters and other Zwifters will not be able to interact with him/her. The ban does allow you to still ride on the app, just not participate in any events. Dozens of riders disagree with Zwift actions, and have started cancelling their subscriptions because of the way Zwift responded to this rider exposing the cheat, many have also added #freeluciano to their Zwift name to help show support for the rider. According to Cycling Tips, Zwift is working on a fix and should roll it out soon.

The reason why many are arguing over this is because of the way Zwift acted. I believe that emailing Zwift might not have actually done anything, which is why this rider decided to create a WordPress site and post on social media and Reddit. The cheat was also pointed out years ago and Zwift never addressed it. ZADA was notified of this bug but Zwift never took any action on it until now.

Here are some links to forums threads, articles, and more:

Cycling Tips: https://cyclingtips.com/2022/02/zwift-bans-whistleblower-for-publishing-details-of-powerful-weight-doping-cheat/

Road.cc: https://road.cc/content/tech-news/zwift-bans-user-exposing-race-weight-cheating-hack-290629

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Zwift/comments/t15i0d/shooting_the_messenger_zwift_bans_user_for/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Zwift/comments/t14su8/freeluciano/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Zwift/comments/t12gby/everyone_should_cheat/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Zwift/comments/t16xfv/wanna_help_freeluciano/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Zwift/comments/t0n5be/the_article_zwift_hq_doesnt_want_you_to_see/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Zwift/comments/t0qb3g/rapha_risingfreeluciano/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Zwift/comments/t06s0z/zwift_has_now_suspended_the_account_of_the_person/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfy2uLrQ2Tk

Zwift Forums: https://forums.zwift.com/t/exploit-found-which-can-lead-cheating/578665