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Comment by thijser | Hacker News Reader

When I try to visit Youtube now I get redirected to https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/40039?p=youtube which says:

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Google reserves the right to:

* Disable an account for investigation. * Suspend a Google Account user from accessing a particular product or the entire Google Accounts system, if the Terms of Service or product-specific policies are violated. * Terminate an account at any time, for any reason, with or without notice.

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So you can just be shut down completely for anything.

After privacy couldn't be trusted to big tech companies, now time for another EU law that restricts how companies can handle account terminations?

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How do these things work in the physical world?

I always thought we had protections that when someone runs a public service (eg. a restaurant or a supermarket), they can't just turn people away they want for "any reason". But I was never confident this is true (and sure, it depends on the local laws).

Eg. imagine there being the only supermarket in your area where the security person (or the branch manager, whoever) doesn't like you (it could be for a mundane reason, maybe you made the computer nerds club and they didn't :), and never lets you in. Obviously, supermarkets rarely exist right next to each other, so existence of one usually precludes another one existing nearby (sometimes even due to urban planning/zoning), but this would be equivalent to terminating someone's account "for any reason".

Would that be legal anywhere?

With public servants, it is usually clear: they've got to give you a reason for any action they are taking, a reason supported by law (except when endangered, but those are special, edge cases).

It is completely legal for businesses to deny service as long as it's not a protected class.

I, as a freelancer, refuse to work with certain "difficult" clients at my sole discretion for example.

As a freelancer, you are usually not working with "the public".

A bunch of professions require special licensing to be able to deal with the public (supermarkets included, but even one-man professions like public notaries in some countries), and while there is no similar legislation for internet "places", we can easily establish de-facto public services (which most social networks are).

So, if you've got an open shop (retail space), can you forbid someone from entering for "any reason"? Eg. "I dislike your hairstyle" is a reason.

In the US anyway, as the parent said, yes you can deny service for any or no reason except for specific protected classes (e.g. sex, race, religion, etc.). You can, for example, deny service to anyone wearing red. Or anyone who is not an adult (or not a child). You can deny service to anyone named Jeeves.

There are, of course, edge cases. For example, a shopping mall is a private space but not in and of itself a retailer. IIRC, they are held to a higher standard than retailers and must have a real reason to deny entry. And then there are the cases of using one reason to deny service when really you want to deny service to a protected class. Those are common lawsuit material.

Thanks!

If that's the case, we probably need to re-think through those policies if we think that they should not apply equally to "virtual" spaces (like Google/Youtube accounts).

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