Australian Man Fired for Pokemon GO Facebook Rant

Sonny Truyen loses job with Singapore company after complaining that the country does not offer the mobile game

Pokemon Go
Niantic Labs

Pokemon GO has delighted millions of players –and cost one man his job.

Australian citizen Sonny Truyen was employed by a Singapore real estate website until he criticized the country in an obscenity-laced Facebook post for not offering the mobile game.

In a since deleted post, Truyen wrote, “You can’t f—— catch Pokémon in this piece of f—— s— country.” When a Singapore resident told him to leave the country, Truyen replied that the average IQ would fall if he left, per The Independent.

Darius Cheung, the CEO of the company Truyen worked for posted, a blog entry after receiving several complaints. “We are a proud Singaporean company and do not condone such language or behaviour, hence we have since terminated his engagement once the incident came to light,” Cheung wrote.

“I apologise on behalf of 99.co, we pride ourselves to be a principled company that celebrates values like diversity and equality,” he continued. “We take responsibility for the public behaviour of any employee or consultant affiliated with us as a reflection of the company.”

Despite not being available in Singapore, Pokemon GO has proven to be incredibly popular.

Since July 7, it has been installed on more Android phones in the U.S. than Tinder. In total, 5.16 percent of Android devices have had the device installed, according to SimilarWeb’s data, and it’s also being used constantly, as nearly 60 percent of those players are playing it daily.

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