Comment by kjrose
5 years ago
The fact that I see stories like this happen about once every month or so makes me incredibly uneasy about Google in general. So many individuals who have lost literally all of their email correspondance, photos, and digital apps they've paid for, simply because some random algorithm decided to cancel them.
And then, notoriously there is almost no way to deal with it or get the accounts back online. Only in a few rare circumstances does someone luck out and hit the right person on HackerNews or Twitter who actually has the ability to restore things.
It's absolutely terrifying and kafkaesque in many cases.
Folks ask me why I generally try to direct them away from Google... it's stuff like this.
>The fact that I see stories like this happen about once every month or so makes me incredibly uneasy about Google in general.
Not just Google! I don't have an Oculus but have heard good things about it. But I can't get one because my Facebook account was similarly shut down without explanation in 2019. Despite its age (15 years) I barely used it, let alone for anything "controversial", but did regularly log into it. I repeatedly tried to verify my identity by submitting an image of my driver's license, without any response.
I don't want to create a fake new Facebook account. I want my own back.
>And then, notoriously there is almost no way to deal with it or get the accounts back online. Only in a few rare circumstances does someone luck out and hit the right person on HackerNews or Twitter who actually has the ability to restore things.
No luck for me so far on this front. Maybe the right person will see this one of these days.