This week, the case of a user who had his Gmail and YouTube accounts removed went viral. Ygor Palopoli reported on Twitter that the case happened after backing up WhatsApp photos and videos to your Google Drive. And beware: Google may delete your accounts if it finds nudes
The youtuber kept automatic WhatsApp backup to the cloud. According to his account, he lost access to his Google account two hours after an upload was performed. On Twitter, other users reported the loss of their accounts in similar cases.
Google removed account for “harmful content”
In the series of publications, Ygor Palopoli explained that the reason given by Google for the removal of his account was “harmful content”. However, he didn’t get much more response beyond that, as most of the contact was with automations.
“Google has not contacted us at any time since the day the account was suspended, other than via autoresponders that ignore the context of the situation,” Palopoli said. In addition to using Google Drive for WhatsApp backup, he also uploaded content from the video bank he subscribed to — leaving the question of where the violation would be. One suspect is the print of a prostitution website, used for the production of a video about “Marmitagate”, a case of an alleged fraud in an NGO in Santa Catarina,
The youtuber himself says he doesn’t know how to identify where the violation would be. Either way, he claims the removal was wrong. For context, Google’s policy authorizes the company to delete any account that violates its terms of service. However, the user can file a support request if they consider the deletion to be an error.
And that’s what Ygor did, but the challenge (opened two weeks ago) has yet to get a response from Google. “Were weeks without sponsorships running, without contact with brands with which I had been negotiating”, Palopoli told APK Games.
THE series of publications was made on the 5th of November and the case was gaining more and more attention — and no contact from Google. On the 6th, Ygor published that he will file a lawsuit against Google.
For APK Games, the youtuber told that after the threadwhose original tweet exceeded 1,200 RTs and 5,000 likes, was contacted by many lawyers who guided him to seek an injunction and sue Google.
“Many lawyers got in touch and guided me to ask for an injunction and a lawsuit for moral and material damages, since the weeks without the account greatly affected my work”, Ygor reported.
This Thursday (10th), Ygor announced that he managed to recover the account🇧🇷 On his Twitter account, the youtuber reported that access was resumed. through the complaint on the website Consumidor.gov.brown federal government🇧🇷
On his own, the youtuber researched similar cases of Google users. On Twitter, doing a quick search with the terms “google harmful content”, you can find the same reports shared by Ygor in his publications. Some are even comical, others more serious and resembling a case that generated a great story in The New York Times🇧🇷
Starting with the “funny” part. One user reported that he had his account removed for “harmful content”, but he claims that on the platform he would only have nudes own. In fact, Google forbids distribution of sexually explicit material🇧🇷
However, uploading your own “sexy” photos shouldn’t be a matter of Google considering pornographic material — even if it’s as a way of protecting the user from a leak. Nor is it a surprise that he observes the content of the images🇧🇷 Photos identifies selfies, texts, tickets and even baking activities — this one I discovered by exploring my account and seeing that it recognized a batch of cheese bread.
Either way, Google allows nudity in Google Photos for educational, documentary, scientific or artistic purposes. If Ygor’s account has been removed for using video content considered sexually explicit, the situation puts other professionals, such as journalists or educators, at risk — have you ever imagined a teacher climbing a page in a book about the reproductive system and losing account?
Google did not respond to our contacts🇧🇷 If they respond, we will update the news with the company’s announcement.
Google reported man over photos of his own son
A “more serious” account, found in one of Ygor’s research, was that of a mother who lost count for uploading a photo of her newborn child. In the United States, a similar case almost landed a man in jail, as explained The New York Times report🇧🇷
The man has been accused of pedophilia after sending a photo of his baby son’s private parts to a doctor – the photos were sent because of a teleconsultation🇧🇷 Google removed all of the man’s accounts, including his phone, leaving him incommunicado. Furthermore, he was reported to the police.
As he had no contact, he only learned about the case when the police department sent a letter informing him that he was investigated for child abuse. Lucky for him, the investigator on the case was a human, not an AI, who was able to assess the situation and declare that there was no criminal practice🇧🇷
Although automation is useful for a company like Google, there are problems that AIs are not yet able to solve — it is necessary that some steps, especially customer service, have a human touch.
Teacher lost account and received no response
Removing accounts because of Drive backups is already a problem, but there are other complaints from Google users. Mathematics teacher Raul Ferreira lost a YouTube channel without any justification.
Raul also said that he was forced to integrate his Hotmail email account with Google. In the process, he also lost the messages from the inbox. When contacting the company’s customer service to get the channel back, the automated response went into an “infinite loop”, where he needs to send the URL and some video of the channel regularly.
Unlike Ygor, Raul didn’t use Drive for backups. In common with the situation that went viral, the teacher also did not get a “human” response from Google🇧🇷 Only automated contacts.
The problem is not just “leaving users in a vacuum”. Many consumers use their Google account as an aggregator of various services, they use it to log into accounts and subscribe to the service. From the moment that there is a lack of support for users to at least understand the situation, there is a strong feeling of neglect by the company towards its consumers.
https://tecnoblog.net/noticias/2022/11/10/google-remove-conta-de-usuario-que-fez-backup-do-whatsapp/