Something strange is going on on Google Docs. People are being shut out of Docs they were working on for violations of Google’s terms of service, when that’s actually not the case.
1. Wildlife journalist Rachael Bale was one of the first people to notice.
2. She is understandably bewildered.
https://twitter.com/Rachael_Bale/status/925353890538774530
3. She does want to clear something up.
4. More and more people are noticing the issue.
https://twitter.com/sunraysunray/status/925352678129127426
5. Quite a lot of people indeed. And they’re getting quite a lot of the same responses.
6. It’s not just journalists. It’s happening to students as well.
https://twitter.com/x_saramaria_x/status/925384271405051905
7. Google’s terms of service seem a little out of whack.
Last week Google temporarily blocked my Adwords keywords for a nonprofit Jewish organization for containing the words “jewish organization.”
— Natalie C Winslow (@nataliecwinslow) 31 oktober 2017
8. New theory: it’s a Halloween prank.
https://twitter.com/TheSciBabe/status/925403127884406784
9. Or could it be a trick to finally get people to read terms of service?
10. It’s already making people question their use of cloud storage services.
11. It all really boils down to this eloquent question:
Yoooooooo @Google @gsuite @googledrive WTF?
— James Harrington (@OlJamesy) October 31, 2017
12. But guess what?
We understand your concern, James. The team has been made aware and is investigating. Appreciate your patience.
— Google Docs (@googledocs) October 31, 2017
Get on it, Google.
UPDATE: Google got on it:
