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Sex Workers Say Porn On Google Drive Is Suddenly Disappearing (vice.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Porn performer Avey Moon was trying to send the lucky winner of her Chaturbate contest his prize -- one of her videos, titled "POV Blowjob" -- through her Google Drive account. But it wouldn't send, and Google wasn't telling her why. "I thought there was something wrong with my file and I got rather worried," Moon told me in a Twitter message. "I had promised this guy his content and he was so good to me. I was panicked because I thought if I couldn't give him his prize, he would feel like he got ripped off and never come back again or worse, he could actually file a complaint with Chaturbate about me and they can take money from me." She's not alone. 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 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for Google directed me to the Drive policy page -- specifically the section on sexually explicit material, which says, "Do not publish sexually explicit or pornographic images or videos....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.
One worker said they've been using Google Drive for most of the last five and a half years but just recently received an error message when sending a video, saying that the item may violate Google's Terms of Service, with a link to request a review. In this case, the video title was explicit, but other adult performers report similar messages when sending content with non-explicit titles. "Some sex workers are wondering if this has something to do with the impending vote on the SESTA-FOSTA bill," reports Motherboard. We now have learned that the Senate has passed the bill.

16 of 356 comments (clear)

  1. Not just sex workers, any explicitly named images by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Informative

    I follow a few cosplay people on Twitter, and some have been saying that even files that have no nudity but just filenames that contain explicit terms, are being locked such that they cannot be accessed nor downloaded.

    Some people were storing their ONLY copy of an image on Google Drive, for the cosplayers these may represent the results of expensive photoshoots they paid for...

    I never really got into using Google Drive and I'm pretty thankful I never did. It is absurd that any file you uploaded may suddenly be seized such that you will never see it again.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  2. do not trust the cloud by theheadlessrabbit · · Score: 5, Informative

    And this is exactly why people should not trust the cloud.

    'The cloud' is a fancy way of saying, "somebody else's computer". And they can control what stays on their computer. They control what security (if any) is in place to protect your data.

    These services and companies can not be trusted.

    --
    -I only code in BASIC.-
  3. Re:Fuck Google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Instead of the religious right, it's the feminist left that's pushing for this.

  4. Re:Religion? Google's Religion is Money by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Porn has nothing to worry about from the Right, and knows it I even read someplace that Utah is the state with the largest number of porn downloads, on the average.

    No offense, but are you stupid? Here is something the (Republican) governor of Utah and the (Republican) legislature of Utah did just a few years ago. In case your intellectual disability precludes you from being able to click on a link, Utah was the first state to pass laws declaring pornography a public health hazard.

    http://www.newsweek.com/utah-p...

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  5. Other V word by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Informative

    This story reveals a violation of assumptions I had made about Google(TM)'s handling of my data

    This story reveals a VALIDATION of assumptions I had made about Google's handling of my data. Which is why I try not to let Google have anything I care about.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  6. Re:Religion? Google's Religion is Money by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1, Informative

    Republicans think porn is pretty dangerous.

    https://www.gq.com/story/flori...

    Then again I heard someone claim Theresa May is a communist the other day so who knows what left and right mean any more.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  7. Re:You get what you pay for? by svanheulen · · Score: 4, Informative

    "Encryption at rest" is a technically correct but intentionally misleading buzzword. It means that the hard drive your data is stored on is encrypted, but the service provider has the encryption keys. If you want your data to only be readable by you, that's called end-to-end encryption, which is not the same as encryption at rest. Goolge Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox only provide encryption at rest and they can snoop through your data all they want. I know MEGA provides end-to-encryption but I'm sure there are others.

  8. Re:Religion? Google's Religion is Money by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 1, Informative

    I don't know how much porn the Utah government downloads, but according to a researcher at Harvard, the *people* of Utah are quite the dawgs, which was my point.

  9. Re: Not just sex workers, any explicitly named ima by slazzy · · Score: 4, Informative

    I guess if you really want to use a cloud service such as google drive, you'll want to use an app that encrypts and changes to numeric filenames.

    --
    Website Just Down For Me? Find out
  10. Re: Not just sex workers, any explicitly named ima by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Stupid is as stupid does.

    The little bit of data I dump on Dropbox goes through Boxcrypter first. It scrambles file names too. Nothing incriminating, but why would I upload my Office docs without securing them first? And I always have a local copy with Dropbox.

  11. Re:Not just sex workers, any explicitly named imag by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Informative

    There's the problem. Don't store your only copy of expensive data on Someone Else's Computer aka The Cloud(tm). At least have a local backup.

    It’s irrelevant whether we’re talking about something controversial, or photos from your kid’s christening - it’s simply stupid to keep your only copy on a cloud drive. You’ve got to have at least one backup that’s under your own control. More than one is even better.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  12. Re:What the fuck is a "sex worker"? by viperidaenz · · Score: 4, Informative

    Someone who has sex for their job.
    Like a construction worker does construction for their job.

    How stupid can you be?

  13. Re:You get what you pay for? by war4peace · · Score: 5, Informative

    SpiderOak offers End-to-end encyption and Zero-Knowledge Encryption too.

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  14. Re: Religion? Google's Religion is Money by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Absolutely wrong the main resistance to pornography is now coming from the hard left feminists. You are misinformed.

    No sir. Did you know, for example, that the 2016 Republican Party platform, which was formed at the RNC convention that nominated Donald Trump declared pornography a pubic health hazard?

    Here is the language from the official party platform:

    "Pornography, with its harmful effects,
    especially on children, has become a public health
    crisis that is destroying the lives of millions. We encourage
    states to continue to fight this public menace
    and pledge our commitment to children’s safety
    and well-being."

    https://prod-cdn-static.gop.co...

    The Democratic Party, which as we know is controlled by the radical feminists, had no such language.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  15. Re:Religion? Google's Religion is Money by GrumpySteen · · Score: 3, Informative

    Porn has nothing to worry about from the Right

    So how do you explain the 114 Republicans who voted for FOSTA?

    FOSTA makes websites responsible for misuse by users, so one set of nudes that turns out to be a prostitute advertising makes the website owners into felons. FOSTA does nothing to the people actually committing the crimes, either, as it's sole purpose is to take away the section 230 protections that website owners had up until now.

    The House passed FOSTA a few weeks ago and the Senate passed it four days ago. It's not a coincidence that Google started taking down anything that might be pornographic before Trump signs it and it becomes law.

    So tell us again why porn sites have nothing to fear from the right.

  16. Re:Not just sex workers, any explicitly named imag by mysidia · · Score: 4, Informative

    If Google support won't budge, then I would suggest they file a lawsuit against Google then, and settle the matter in court.

    Google's rule about "Do not publish sexually explicit or pornographic images or videos" --- doesn't say ANYTHING against using their storage service for Private, Non-Published storage of files and selective distribution or sharing between team members.