It has been a month now since artist and writer Dennis Cooper’s beloved blog was deleted by Google from blogspot.com. And Google’s constant stonewalling and secrecy, along with the international media attention, makes the whole ordeal very strange.
Google’s official statement regarding the situation is astoundingly opaque.
We are aware of this matter, but the specific terms of service violations are ones we cannot discuss further due to legal considerations.
So what could the Terms of Service violation be? The blog was praised by intellectuals, fostering a community that included other famous artists. From what we know, the blog hosted writings, artwork, and the occasional piece of sexually explicit content — he reportedly had a recurring feature where escort ads were highlighted for their literary quality. Cooper put an adult warning on the blog just to be careful, yet nothing on the site was worse than the pornography hosted on other Blogspot blogs.
Google maintains the right to “suspend or stop providing our services to you if you do not comply with our terms or policies or if we are investigating suspected misconduct.” But their Terms of Service also states: “We believe that you own your data and preserving your access to such data is important. If we discontinue a Service, where reasonably possible, we will give you reasonable advance notice and a chance to get information out of that Service.”
Google did not provide Cooper with any advanced notice when they deleted his website and Gmail account, and the data contained on his blogspot were completely lost, including an unfinished “GIF book” he did not have backed up anywhere else.
So there are only a few possible reasons for Google’s odd behavior:
- They completely screwed up, deleted the blog and are worried about legal ramifications.
- Cooper had some kind of illegal material on the blog or Google account, serious enough to warrant a lengthy investigation.
- This is some kind of censorship of Cooper for his avant-garde writing.
The censorship option seems the least likely of the three. In all probability, either Google screwed up royally, accidentally booting a vibrant community of artists from their platform — or there is something serious in Cooper’s Google data that justifies the secrecy.
Even Google’s own employees could not find answers on the blog. Three of Cooper’s followers who work for Google launched unsuccessful internal investigations on the matter.
Today, Cooper received another message from Google, stating he violated their Terms of Service and telling him he could appeal, a likely pointless act as his last attempt went unanswered.
Whatever the answer to the mysterious disappearance of Cooper’s blog, it further exemplifies how large tech companies can behave with absolute impunity regarding your data. No warning, no appeal, and complete press obfuscation.
