Childhood Memories In Google Drive: HC Saves Man From Losing Account Over 'Objectionable Content'

An engineer by profession, Neel Samir Shula found himself in a fix when the tech giant locked his access to google account over a picture that was taken 22-years-ago, when he was a 2-year-old toddler.

Shukla could not access gmail, Google Pay or any other service linked with Google.

Source : Getty

The Gujarat High Court had to step in to stop Google India from deleting a 24-year-old man's account over his childhood picture in which he was being bathed by his grandmother. Google locked his account after flagging his childhood memories in google drive as "explicit content."

An engineer by profession, Neel Samir Shula found himself in a fix when the tech giant locked his access to google account over a picture that was taken 22-years-ago, when he was a 2-year-old toddler.

Shukla who is an IT professional and works as an Artificial Intelligence (AI) consultant, could not access gmail, Google Pay or any other service linked with Google. Following which he first sent a legal notice to the tech giant and then knocked the Gujarat High Court to stop Google from deleting his account.

Taking cognisance of the case, a bench headed by Justice VD Nanavati directed Google India to not permanently delete Shukla's account until further orders.

"In view of the fact that the petitioner herein is not in a position to use the g-mail, google pay, UPI or such other facilities which flow from his google account, considering the fact that he has approached Google with a legal notice and no steps are undertaken by the respondent, by way of interim relief, his google account and google data attached with google ID is directed not to be deleted till further orders,” the order read.

Shukla told the court that he has been using the account since 2013. And, it was in May 2023, that he received notification informing him that his account is blocked due to "explicit content" potentially related to child sexual abuse or exploitation.

In August 2023, Shukla sent a legal notice to Google but received no response.

In March, the Gujarat High Court issued notice to the tech giant to which it is yet to recieve response.