Google labels Gujarat man’s childhood bathing picture ‘porn’, blocks his account; gets HC notice

Gujarat High Court has issued a notice to Google India Pvt Ltd, state government and Centre after the tech giant blocked an Ahmedabad man’s account for uploading his childhood photo in Google Drive citing “explicit child abuse”.

The 24-year-old engineer Neel Shukla had uploaded a photo showing his grandmother giving him a bath when he was just two-year-old.

Shukla suspected the role of an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled programme behind the blocking. He had uploaded his photos to Google Drive and his account was blocked in April last year.

Shukla’s counsel Dipen Desai told the HC his client could not access email and his business was suffering. Shukla had earlier requested Google to restore his account, but in vain.

Desai stressed urgency during the recent HC hearing, saying Shukla had just received a notice from Google saying the data linked to his account would be deleted in April, when it will be a year since it was rendered inoperative. Justice VD Nanavati then issued notice to the authorities and Google, seeking their replies by March 26.

Shukla said his second email ID also became inoperative as it had joint authentication with Google.

After his appeals to Google’s grievance redressal failed to resolve the issue, Shukla approached Gujarat police and the Centre’s department of science and technology, the nodal agency for such matters in India. But Shukla said the authorities remained silent, forcing him to seek judicial remedy.