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Comment by kyrra | Hacker News Reader

The currently linked site is just a forum post, which links to Instagram, which is a screenshot of a discord chat. Instagram has the screenshots at least: https://www.instagram.com/sloan_spencer_author/p/C48JN_TrvxO...

It does look like the author just lost access to docs they shared with others, not their entire account. Author is currently appealing.

We have seen this kind of thing in the past. Drive has to be careful, as people will use private drive links and doc links (could have embedded images) to share explicit material that may be illegal. From my understanding, Google will start running some kind of automation against things when they are shared with other people if they might contain things that could be illegal. I have no idea what the heuristics are, or how often they get it wrong. But they are kind of between a rock and a hard place.

Googler, opinions are my own.

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Author’s last screenshot states that her whole account was frozen just after submitting the appeal and she no longer has access to her docs.

I would have far less of an issue with this if certain docs were marked unsharable, or even if her entire account could no longer share, but losing access to previous work written before the policy change feels like a big misstep to me.

Here’s what she said:

> “As of right now, I don't know. I cannot access any of mine to check at the moment Thankfully an alpha reader of mine saw it happening and I downloaded everything to my laptop before I submitted an appeal. Atter processing the appeal, a pop up said my account was frozen pending review. My assumption is after the review I'll either get everything back or lose it, but I don't know for sure.”

> Atter processing the appeal, a pop up said my account was frozen pending review

Google presuming guilt until proven innocent. An appeal locking the account in retaliation is absolutely disgusting.

Meta does this too. My guess it appears as some signal to some "AI" somewhere that this is Legit Bad Stuff, and they then send it over to an underpaid overworked exploited moderator somewhere who doesn't care, and just takes it to the next level.

The problem is the blast radius. Google can and will delete your Android account for an unrelated issue, e.g. a billing dispute. Apple is just as bad.

Care to explain what exactly "may be illegal" in this case?

the writing

please read the post before asking questions in bad faith

Bad faith? Erotic writing "may be illegal" in the US? o_O

Explicit writing without some sort age verification may be in a gray area. The classic "smutty writing magazines" of old were still on the over 18 shelf in the magazine store.

Some states may further restrict this and go after the distributor or publisher ( https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2024/3/BillText/er/PDF )

    (e) "Material harmful to minors" means any material that:
    1. The average person applying contemporary community
    standards would find, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient
    interest;
    2. Depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way,
    sexual conduct as specifically defined in s. 847.001(19); and
    ...

Media type is not defined - text may be interested to fall within that definition.

Google is also a multi-national company and would need to comply with laws in other countries too. If the individuals are represented as being minors (again, changes with jurisdictions) this gets into further complications in many places.

That share links are neither checked for age nor jurisdiction, google would be liable for knowingly distributing sexually explicit material without proper checks in place to limit consumption by minors or in jurisdictions where such content is restricted.

> Google is also a multi-national company and would need to comply with laws in other countries too. If the individuals are represented as being minors (again, changes with jurisdictions) this gets into further complications in many places.

Why is this particular example is being singled out? Calling current conflict in Ukraine "war" or "invasion" is also illegal in one particular jurisdiction. Would Google also ban me for distributing draft of a book about it via Drive? How about a fantasy novel about adventures on Winnie-the-Pooh in China?

> That share links are neither checked for age nor jurisdiction, google would be liable for knowingly distributing sexually explicit material without proper checks in place to limit consumption by minors or in jurisdictions where such content is restricted.

As far as I understood the draft was shared with particular group of people. It is not like author uploaded porn video on youtube and made it public.

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