Google+ suspends accounts over ToS violations

Mountain View has frozen or purged a number of Google+ accounts and related services such as Gmail/Docs for allegedly violating the company’s Terms of Service (ToS).

Google+ social lead Vic Gundrota acknowledged Google may have made “some mistakes” in its first round of suspensions for users who had not signed up with their real names. 

However, Gundrota claimed the suspensions hadn’t really targeted those who weren’t using their legal names, but rather, accounts with strange characters or obviously fake logins. 

Gundrota said Google would “make an effort” to inform people as to why their accounts have been suspended, while also trying to find a way to deal with pseudonyms. 



Nevertheless, Violet Blue reports that a “striking number” of Google+ accounts have been deleted in recent days, as the fledgling social network appears to be struggling with its community standards policy.

According to Violet, the list of deleted Google+ accounts affected even Limor Fried, AKA Lady Ada/Adafruit, a well-known tech guru. Interestingly enough, Fried’s account was subsequently restored.

Other suspended/frozen accounts include ex-Google employee Kirrily “Skud” Robert, Madge Weinstein, A.V. Flox and Dr. Popular.