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Comment by nkozyra | Hacker News Reader

It really does feel like there's a day of reckoning coming for services that can boot you with one fell swoop. And unfortunately it's unlikely to come from the source or from a general public appeal, but from government intervention.

My adsense account was banned years ago. No details, no receptiveness to appeals. It's the kind of thing that's kept me from some personal/professional pursuits because I know there's a big barrier to monetization should it gain traction.

Google (or Apple) purgatory really doesn't seem like a sustainable business model. Someday they'll tick off the wrong person and it will turn into a big deal involving the government

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This is my exact situation, I was banned from adsence over 10 years ago when I was a teenager. I still to this day do not know what caused the ban. I'm now running a successfull business and have had to shape our whole monetization strategy around avoiding google.

> unfortunately it's unlikely to come from the source or from a general public appeal, but from government intervention

Not unfortunately. Hopefully. Government doesn't work very well, but still much better than all those huge private companies. There are appeals, for one.

I think it's unfortunate not that government is involved but that they'd have to be involved because Google is uninterested in improving this policy and its customers lack the voice to compel them.

Government is not one thing though. There's the rule making branch of government and then there's the executive branch of government, the various agencies and government owned companies that often make people just as helpless as these tech behemoths, in some cases even more so.

It's simply very hard to go up against monopolies, regardless of whether they are private or public. It all depends on your ability to pay for good lawyers and survive the time until you get justice (both physically and financially).

What we need here is government in its role as a rule maker. This is a function that only government can play. It's not a question of being better or worse than private enterprise. It's a categorically different role.

I am in the opposite situation.

AdSense works fine for me, but I have been banned from AdWords for over a decade.

Also banned my partner’s account from AdWords, as well (because we used the same internet connection).

> And unfortunately it's unlikely to come from the source or from a general public appeal, but from government intervention.

The government IS the ultimate form of general public appeal, right? It would be unfortunate if we had to resort to begging or public demonstrations instead of having our elected representatives enact our will through law.

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