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Sex Workers Say Porn on Google Drive Is Suddenly Disappearing
[...] Six porn performers I talked to and more on social media said that they suddenly can't download adult content they keep on Google Drive. They also said they can't a[sic] share that content with other accounts or send to clients. In some cases, the adult content is disappearing from Drive without warning or explanation. The porn performers I talked to started sounding the alarm on Twitter last week. They said that Google Drive no longer seemed sex-trade friendly, detailing error messages and sharing cloud storage alternatives with each other.
When I asked about sexual content being blocked on Drive, a spokesperson for Google directed me to the Drive policy page—specifically the section on sexually explicit material, which says, "Do not publish sexually explicit or pornographic images or videos.... Additionally, we do not allow content that drives traffic to commercial pornography." Writing about porn and sex is permitted, the policy states, as long as it's not accompanied by sexually explicit images or videos. According to Google, Drive uses a combination of automated systems and manual review to decide what's in violation.
[...] "It seems like all of our videos in Google Drive are getting flagged by some sort of automated system," Stone said. "We're not even really getting notified of it, the only way we really found out was one of our customers told us he couldn't view or download the video we sent him."
Stone's files aren't removed from Drive, but when she tries to play the video or download it, she said Google gives her an error message: "Whoops! There was a problem playing this video" with an option to download the item, but the download link doesn't work.
Some sex workers are wondering if this has something to do with the impending vote on the SESTA-FOSTA bill, which is on the Senate floor for debate this week. [ed. note: it was passed]
It could also be that Google is suddenly enforcing its Terms of Service without warning.
[...] "I don't believe that Google should be allowed to dictate what you and another consenting adult send to each other through email."
(Score: 2) by jcross on Sunday March 25 2018, @07:36PM
I've heard from some googlers I know that porn ads make up a nontrivial percentage of Google's revenue, so "we do not allow content that drives traffic to commercial pornography" in that context comes off as extra ironic. I think the real problem might be that they're not making much money out of this usage.