Google suspends romance author's account for writing sexually explicit content • Hacker News Board

Re: Google suspends romance author's account for writing sexually explicit content

#71

Post by mjburgess » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 1:45 PM UTC

vouaobrasil wrote: post #28

The other day, I saw a movie scene on YouTube where a guy is knife-fighting with another guy. There is a stab in the throat at the end, where all the life drains from his face. Blood is gushing and we see a human being kill another human being. I really don't understand why Google (and Western society) condones this sort of content while having a near zero-tolerance policy towards sex and love. But I figured it out t…

Watching violent films doesn't make you violent. Watching sexual content does (occasionally) make you want to have sex.

There really isnt anything more to it than that. People who want to censor sexual content are accurately assessing its disposition to arouse audiences; and accurately assessing violent film's disposition to induce catharsis.

Re: Google suspends romance author's account for writing sexually explicit content

#72

Post by giantg2 » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 1:45 PM UTC

lupusreal wrote: post #31

giantg2 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Cloud backups used to be a smart thing to do. Now they are a liability." If they're actually a backup they can be a good idea. If it's a single source, then yeah, it's asking for trouble. I even backup my GitHub stuff locally because who knows what could happen.

Even if the files are actually a backup it's not a good idea if it also gets your email/etc accounts nuked. Megacorps with many online properties are landmine fields because you can get banned from a dozen services for a BS 'violation' on just one of them.

That idea is true for the rest of those services too. We could just stop using all the services if they are all run by the same Corp and subjected to the same BS rules. If your Google drive got banned for explicit material, it's only a matter of time your Gmail would trigger it because you sent drafts between you and your publisher instead of using Drive.

If it's a true backup, it should be encrypted in my opinion, especially on the cloud. Then it doesn't matter since they can't see it.

Re: Google suspends romance author's account for writing sexually explicit content

#73

Post by BanazirGalbasi » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 1:45 PM UTC

nicbou wrote: post #40

jlkuester7 wrote: post #21

Good open source self-hostable alternatives exist! https://nextcloud.com/ (no affiliation, just a longtime happy user) is great for file sharing and even collaborative online document editing. If you do not want to host your own instance, there are many great providers who will host one for you at a low cost.

My nextcloud instance killed itself during an update. I wrote a blog post about it and people regularly write to thank me, so it wasn't an isolated instance. Syncthing is much simpler, and practically bulletproof. It really just works.

I have never once had Nextcloud updates work properly. It doesn't matter if I update as soon as the new version is ready or if I wait long enough for my current version to go EoL, the updater breaks something critical and my instance is non-functional.

Despite that, nextcloud/owncloud do what I want/need and I'm not sure if Syncthing does. So I keep stubbornly re-trying and just spin up a new instance when the old one dies.

Re: Google suspends romance author's account for writing sexually explicit content

#74

Post by black6 » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 1:45 PM UTC

vouaobrasil wrote: post #28

The other day, I saw a movie scene on YouTube where a guy is knife-fighting with another guy. There is a stab in the throat at the end, where all the life drains from his face. Blood is gushing and we see a human being kill another human being. I really don't understand why Google (and Western society) condones this sort of content while having a near zero-tolerance policy towards sex and love. But I figured it out t…

Acts of hate are allowed by the censors to be viewed, while acts of love are not. This speaks very highly about the state of American society.

Re: Google suspends romance author's account for writing sexually explicit content

#75

Post by causi » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 1:46 PM UTC

nickelpro wrote: post #62

Misleading title, none of the authors involved are claiming they're locked out of the accounts. The exact quote from the OP's mastadon is "An author lost access to her explicit writing when she shared it with alpha and beta readers." Google says you may not use its services to distribute sexually explicit content. This is a very common and reasonable policy. The authors violated that rule, and while none of them are…

This information wildly alters the circumstances. Your comment should be at the top of the page.

Re: Google suspends romance author's account for writing sexually explicit content

#76

Post by bradley13 » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 1:46 PM UTC

The cloud is "someone else's computer". You don't make the rules, they do. Keep your stuff on your own system, and maybe use the cloud for backup. Honestly, I don't even recommend that, unless you have actually read the T&C.

The simplest solution is to get two memory sticks and copy your data to them. One stays with you, the other is in a safe-deposit box. Rotate them regularly. It's really not that much effort.

That all said, WTF? Is this a new round of Puritanism come to visit? Why does Google care if adults are writing porn and sharing it?

Re: Google suspends romance author's account for writing sexually explicit content

#77

Post by namaria » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 1:46 PM UTC

vouaobrasil wrote: post #28

The other day, I saw a movie scene on YouTube where a guy is knife-fighting with another guy. There is a stab in the throat at the end, where all the life drains from his face. Blood is gushing and we see a human being kill another human being. I really don't understand why Google (and Western society) condones this sort of content while having a near zero-tolerance policy towards sex and love. But I figured it out t…

Violence is channeled by western society as a righteous vengeance. Sex is channeled as the reproductive force of nuclear families. It's not that one is celebrated and the other oppressed. Violence against the innocent is always punished by a righteous warrior. And sex is not condemned. It is celebrated in the context of long term coupling to raise children. Promiscuity and non-reproductive sex is therefore seen as threat. An eligible target for the fury of the righteous. Non reproductive sex in western societies is only celebrated in the context of overpopulated urban centers.

Re: Google suspends romance author's account for writing sexually explicit content

#78

Post by gcr » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 1:46 PM UTC

nickelpro wrote: post #62

Misleading title, none of the authors involved are claiming they're locked out of the accounts. The exact quote from the OP's mastadon is "An author lost access to her explicit writing when she shared it with alpha and beta readers." Google says you may not use its services to distribute sexually explicit content. This is a very common and reasonable policy. The authors violated that rule, and while none of them are…

That’s not what the author wrote. A popup said her account was frozen. See the last screenshot.

“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.“

Re: Google suspends romance author's account for writing sexually explicit content

#79

Post by pavel_lishin » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 1:46 PM UTC

nickelpro wrote: post #62

Misleading title, none of the authors involved are claiming they're locked out of the accounts. The exact quote from the OP's mastadon is "An author lost access to her explicit writing when she shared it with alpha and beta readers." Google says you may not use its services to distribute sexually explicit content. This is a very common and reasonable policy. The authors violated that rule, and while none of them are…

Why is it reasonable?

Re: Google suspends romance author's account for writing sexually explicit content

#80

Post by diggan » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 1:48 PM UTC

thfuran wrote: post #48

diggan wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Instagram post ( https://www.instagram.com/sloan_spencer_author/p/C48JN_TrvxO ) states: > one romance author explain that all her work was suspended by Google [...] She has no access to these files or her other works That would seem like an account suspension, not just one document. Edit: I guess it might also be a Google Drive/Docs specific suspension, rather than Google-wide.

>I guess it might also be a Google Drive/Docs specific suspension, Do they do that? I've only ever heard of people being entirely locked out of their Google account, not specific services.

I'm not sure to be honest, but the other day I got a popup asking if Google Search could link their data about me with YouTube and some other Google services, so I'm assuming there is at least some isolation between the services.

Not sure if that applies to suspensions though.