We know that Google+ is invitation only but it looks like celebs are also accountable to Google’s whims after Star Trek actor William Shatner’s account was suspended on Monday, only to be mysteriously restored later in the day.
The actor, who played Captain James T. Kirk, revealed on his Twitter account that he had received an email from Google claiming that he had violated their standards and that they had taken his account offline. The space age star tweeted, “My Google+ account was flagged for violating standards,” and later added: “Saying hello to everyone apparently is against the rules. Maybe I should say goodbye?”
The Google+ ban didn’t last too long though and Shatner was soon beamed back to the Google+ site and wrote on his account: “I am back plusers. I still do not know what happened but I will refrain from saying hello again for a while just in case. My best, Bill.”
Representatives at the search giant have declined to comment on what Captain Kirk did wrong, but perhaps they didn’t quite believe that old Bill was quite who he said he was. It just goes to show that it’s not just us humble folk who are schmoozing online – who knows who you could end up with in your Circles!
It could have something to do with a general clampdown on slightly suspicious accounts. On the same day, Google also shut down a Google+ account that allegedly belonged to the Anonymous hacker group.
Google has reported that there are now more than 10 million users on Google+, despite still being in testing and having only debuted three weeks ago. Are you one of them?