Google blocks Gujarat man’s email account over nude childhood photo, court issues notice

The Gujarat High Court Justice Vaibhavi D Nanavati on March 15 issued notices to Google, the Central and state governments returnable on March 26 after the tech giant blocked the email account of the petitioner, Neel Shukla, a computer engineer, for nearly a year citing ‘explicit child abuse” after he uploaded a nude childhood photo on Google Drive. The photo was of his grandmother bathing him when he was two years old.

Shukla’s account was blocked by the tech giant in April 2023. He filed a petition in the high court on March 12 after the company was unable to resolve the matter through its grievance redressal mechanism, according to his counsel Dipen Desai.

Desai informed the court that since Google blocked Shukla’s email account, he has been unable to access his emails, leading to financial losses in his business.

The petitioner, in his plea, said, “Google says this amounts to ‘explicit child abuse,’ and they have blocked everything. I have not been able to access my email and my business (is affected) as everything is blocked.”

The petitioner went to the Gujarat police and the Centre’s Department of Science and Technology, but didn’t got any help, prompting him to seek judicial remedy.

Additionally, the petitioner urged for a fast hearing process, as he got a notice from Google stating that the data linked to his account would be permanently deleted in April, a year after it was rendered inoperative.