Google won’t tell me the name of the file—or files—they believe violated their policy. So IT IS baseless speculation. I only know what I was doing prior to the account deletion—and I’m guessing that’s what triggered the issue.
Google should at minimum publish the filenames of the content they consider violations. I have Colab notebooks for everything I’ve downloaded from the internet. With a filename, I could trace the origin and have the image independently reviewed.
I suspect it wasn’t CSAM at all. We know nothing about how their detection system or hashing works. I’d also like to point out that I benchmarked my model against Google’s own commercially available NSFW detector—and mine actually performed better:
https://medium.com/@russoatlarge/benchmark-study-punge-yolov...
As for datasets: COCO is the most widely used dataset in computer vision, with hundreds of thousands of labeled images. One image in the COCO Train2017 set—000000001790.jpg—shows a child brushing his teeth while looking in the mirror in his “birthday suit.” But if Google's system flagged that as CSAM, then every researcher using COCO is at risk.
If Google genuinely cared about addressing CSAM responsibly, they would share the filenames so they could be independently verified and—if needed—removed from circulation. Instead, they’re silent. That silence creates fear, not safety.
Let me be clear: I deeply appreciate Google’s efforts to detect and report CSAM. These systems are vital for protecting children and stopping abuse, and I fully support that mission.
But good intentions are not a substitute for fairness. Right now, individuals who are falsely flagged have no way to defend themselves, no way to clear their name, and no meaningful path to restore their livelihood.
If a system is powerful enough to destroy someone’s life, it should also be strong enough to offer transparency, review, and correction. That’s all I — and others like me — are asking for: a fair process to protect the innocent while continuing the fight against real harm."
I'm a real person — this actually happened to me last Thursday.
My name is Mark Russo. I’m not going to be shamed or erased. I created an app called Punge that’s live on both iOS and Android. The article wasn't written by ChatGPT — it's my story. I used ChatGPT to help tighten the writing, but every word reflects what I lived through.
Since this happened, I’ve reached out to lawyers, media, lawmakers, and professional contacts — even people I know at Google. I’ve lost access to everything tied to my account: Gmail, Firebase, AdMob, and the infrastructure that powers my apps. Google won’t even tell me which file triggered the CSAM flag.
Even if — by some miracle — I get my account back, I’m committed to making sure this kind of thing doesn’t keep happening. No one should lose their digital life overnight, with no transparency, no due process, and no way to defend themselves.
According to this NYT article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/30/technology/google-appeals... — people who manage to claw their way out of this nightmare usually do so only after getting media attention. A CBS reporter has shown some interest. If anyone here has been through something similar, message me on LinkedIn — I’ll do whatever I can to help share your story too.
Google should at minimum publish the filenames of the content they consider violations. I have Colab notebooks for everything I’ve downloaded from the internet. With a filename, I could trace the origin and have the image independently reviewed.
I suspect it wasn’t CSAM at all. We know nothing about how their detection system or hashing works. I’d also like to point out that I benchmarked my model against Google’s own commercially available NSFW detector—and mine actually performed better: https://medium.com/@russoatlarge/benchmark-study-punge-yolov...
As for datasets: COCO is the most widely used dataset in computer vision, with hundreds of thousands of labeled images. One image in the COCO Train2017 set—000000001790.jpg—shows a child brushing his teeth while looking in the mirror in his “birthday suit.” But if Google's system flagged that as CSAM, then every researcher using COCO is at risk.
If Google genuinely cared about addressing CSAM responsibly, they would share the filenames so they could be independently verified and—if needed—removed from circulation. Instead, they’re silent. That silence creates fear, not safety.