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What are dumb reasons that Google will ban you for? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by Bea@lemmy.ca to c/deGoogle@lemmy.ca
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If we want to argue that Degoogling isn't just about privacy, but about protecting your digital life from being shut down at the whim of a tech giant with no real appeal process, what are some examples showing why we shouldn’t ignore the risk of Google banning users, locking them out of countless accounts, and deleting photos, emails, and records that often lack backups?

Some examples that I personally know of:

  • Being mass reported in YouTube comments for expressing a controversial opinion
  • Filing a copyright claim, only for a creator to appeal it, and failing to provide ownership proof within 48 hours
  • Having your Google account hacked and used for fake ads or Play purchases, then being told the charges are “legitimate,” and facing a ban if you dispute them
  • Having your $1000 Google store purchase lost in transit, then being told that you're not getting a refund and if you try to chargeback, you'll be banned.
  • Failing to provide a picture of a credit card for a Google store order flagged for fraud within 72 hours.
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[-] LemUrun@pawb.social 4 points 1 month ago

#4 is ridiculous. You would be banned by Google for Google's fault? If so, that people at Google lost their minds.

[-] tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Account bans after using chargeback are quite common, across the entire goods and services industry.

The story usually goes like this:

  1. You order some goods and don't get what you paid for
  2. You complain to the merchant, they investigate, and for whatever reason find that everything looks OK from their end (i.e. they believe you are the one lying , being fraudulent, and trying to get a refund on goods you actually recieved)
  3. You initiate a chargeback, which causes your bank to forcibly return your money from the merchant's bank, without the merchant's consent
  4. When a chargeback happens (sometimes has to be multiple chargebacks, or over a certain $$ value) the merchant will quite often consider you a scammer , not want to do any further business with you, and close your account.

The law allows it, but it puts honest customers in an awful position because you have to choose between eating the loss, or potentially losing your account. Fine if it was just some shopping site account you don't care about, but bad if it's the key to your entire digital life that just went bye-bye.

The law and consumer protection are just not caught up.

This is all part of why we should degoogle (given the community this post is in) and not put all our eggs in the same basket.

[-] RodgeGrabTheCat@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago

Examples of Google shutting down accounts on a whim:

https://www.timesnownews.com/viral/dad-took-photos-of-his-son-for-the-doctor-google-flagged-him-as-a-criminal-article-93725588

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-users-locked-out-after-years-2020-10

This one may be justified, even the owner of the account isn't sure https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-09-19/google-closed-my-account-over-sexual-content-but-theyre-not-telling-me-what-it-is-and-ive-lost-everything.html

The play store is unsafe - https://thehackernews.com/2022/07/over-dozen-android-apps-on-google-play.html?m=1

this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2025
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