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Google is in hot water after banning the Google account of Andrew Spinks, the lead developer of the hit indie game Terraria. Spinks’ game development company Re-Logic’s YouTube account was hit with some kind of terms of service violation, resulting in Google banning the entire Google account from Spinks, significantly disrupting ability from his business to doing business. After three fruitless weeks of trying to resolve the situation, Spinks ad that his company will no longer do business with Google and that the next Stadia version of Terraria is canceled. “I will not be involved in a company that values its customers and partners so little”, Spinks said. “Doing business with you is a responsibility.”
Three weeks ago, the official Terraria The Twitter account publicly pleaded with YouTube for some sort of resolution to a recent Google account ban. The Terraria Account Explain, “We haven’t added anything new to our one YouTube channel (RelogicGames) for several months. However, we randomly received an email stating that there was a violation of the T & Cs but that it was likely accidental and therefore the account would not receive any warning. ” Terraria The Twitter account continued: “Three days later, the entire Google account (YouTube, Gmail, all Google apps, even all purchases made for over 15 years on the Google Play Store) was deactivated without warning or recourse. . This account is associated with many business functions and as such the impact for us is quite substantial. “
Re-Logic’s vague recollection of a “TOS violation” highlights one of the main frustrations of a Google Account ban: you immediately lose access to your Gmail account, so you can’t give a detailed account of what happened or what any communication said because you cannot read your email. Re-Logic’s YouTube channel, which is still there (with a disabled profile photo), appears to be just trailers for the company’s games.
Spinks says his entire Google account has been down for three weeks now and Google “has done nothing but give me the solution.” You can see for yourself the quality of Google’s support on Twitter. After the official’s tweet Terrarium account, YouTube support decreases Re-logic asked to try to resolve the issue privately, choosing instead to publicly offer irrelevant suggestions to the game developer with more than 30 million customers. First, Youtube asked if Re-Logic could access its banned email account, which the developer has previously explained is banned. Then YouTube suggested try the Google Account Recovery System, which is for users who have forgotten their Google password. Finally, YouTube shared instructions to find out how to recover a deleted Google account, which is in no way relevant for an account ban.
Then Spinks made his big announcement.
I did absolutely nothing to violate your terms of service, so I can’t take that other than deciding to burn this bridge down. Consider it burnt. #Terraria for @GoogleStadia is canceled. My business will no longer support any of your platforms in the future.
– Andrew Spinks (@Demilogic) February 8, 2021
Google is known for the way it handles issues on Google Play and YouTube, where every rule violation feels like it’s being handled by a robot, and getting your hands on a real human can seem like an impossible task. Google wants people to build a business on top of its platforms, but the lack of common sense dispute resolution is, as Spinks puts it, “a handicap.” Google earns billions of dollars a year from these two services.
Google uses a single account system for almost all of its products. On the one hand, this makes it easy for users of one Google service to try other Google services, but it also results in ridiculously disproportionate penalties if a user is hit with an account ban. A copyright infringement claim on YouTube, a dispute over a Google Pay transaction, or a violation of terms of service can result in the deletion of your entire online life. If you are part of the Google ecosystem, a Google Account ban means you lose access to your entire email account; all the photos you have already taken; your cell phone service; your ability to communicate with friends and family; all your 2FA accounts; anything that uses Google OAuth; your application development company; your YouTube business and all of your subscribers; your purchased apps, games, movies, music, and books; and all your contacts, documents, bookmarks and notes.
For many people, a Google Account ban is an online death sentence, and it’s also a punishment with little recourse for the victim. How would you even start challenging a Google Account ban when the first thing that happens is your Gmail stops working? If you’re a famous indie developer with a hit game in development for Google’s streaming service, publicly canceling your game on Twitter is probably a good way to get your voice heard.
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