Google’s AI Mistook a Manga Author for a Pirate and Banned His Account

Japanese manga artist Itosugi Masahiro lost his Google account after uploading his own manga: the algorithm mistook it for pirated content, the author said on X. According to the author, he was transferring data from his old manga to Google Drive when the system, without warning, threw an error and then a ban notification. It was about copyright-protected content, and the algorithm didn’t take into account that the uploader was the rights holder.

The attempt to appeal the decision was unsuccessful. The appeal was reviewed and rejected, and the artist suspects that at every stage he was dealing with an AI moderator, not real employees. He describes the recovery process as a vicious circle: repeated requests get standard denials with no explanation of the details. The consequences were serious for the author, as he used his Google account to log into dozens of services, storing email, documents, photos, and all of that became inaccessible. That said, the original drawing files survived — according to the author, he regularly backs up to his local computer, so the artworks themselves aren’t lost, but his personal data and access to third-party accounts linked through Google are gone with no way to quickly restore them.

Itosugi’s post describing the situation garnered over 60,000 likes on X and sparked a wave of discussions about automated content moderation. Many users pointed out that algorithms still don’t know how to correctly identify the legitimate owner when content matches. Previously, a Google AI agent also made headlines by deleting all data from a developer’s drive.

The incident once again highlights the vulnerability of a model where a user is completely dependent on a single account. The author’s intellectual property was deemed a violation, and the appeal mechanisms turned out to be opaque — they formally exist, but in practice, getting a decision reversed with automated review is nearly impossible.

Have you ever faced false bans from cloud service algorithms? How did you resolve the issue? Share in the comments.