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Google has reportedly deleted author Dennis Cooper's blog and Gmail account, reports Tobias Carroll for Vol. 1 Brooklyn. Thus far, only a blanket response that Cooper's blog had broken Google's terms of service has been offered. Read Carrol in partial below, or in full via Vol. 1 Brooklyn.
Over the years, Dennis Cooper’s blog has become a go-to spot for those who appreciate challenging, bold, experimental literature. Cooper has frequently championed books on indie presses and literary work in small journals, using his own influence to point readers in the direction of other work that they might enjoy. (Many writers I know have been thrilled to have been included in lists of highlights from Cooper’s recent reading.) Over time, the site has gradually become a place where devotees of avant-garde fiction can learn more about what’s new in that particular corner of literature.
You’ll notice, however, that I didn’t link to it in the paragraph above. That’s because, late last month, Google deleted both Cooper’s blog and his Gmail account without providing any advance notice to him. Visiting the URL now brings up an error page stating that the page has been removed, and that “[t]his address is not available for new blogs.”
In a post on his Facebook page, Cooper noted that Google hasn’t been particularly forthcoming about the deletion. “Other than being shown a general ‘violation of our terms of service’ statement, I have been given no explanation for this, and I have not received any response to my questions and complaints thus far,” he wrote on June 28th.
In the weeks since then, Cooper has been updating readers with progress on the case via Facebook. So far, there hasn’t been much change in the situation: as of July 5th, Cooper wrote, “there are now three separate and simultaneous ‘internal investigations’ into the situation going on at Google.” There remains no indication of whether Cooper’s account has been entirely deleted or whether some form of recovery is possible–or, for that matter, of why Google felt the need to delete Cooper’s email account and blog to begin with.
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