William Shatner | Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
Actor, Priceline spokesman, and accomplished spoken-word musician William Shatner has been kicked off of Google+ for “violating standards,” according to a tweet he posted late last night:
“My Google+ account was flagged for violating standards. Saying hello to everyone apparently is against the rules maybe I should say goodbye?”
According to TechCrunch’s Robin Wauters, the site’s automated banning process could have accidentally barred his account. Google+ user Florian Rohrweck said (in colorful language) that the Google+ team likely has nothing to do with it. Rather, it was people falsely reporting celebrity accounts like Shatner’s as fakes that can cause them to be automatically suspended. Until Google+ offers account verification à la Twitter, he said, this will continue to be a problem.
Shatner himself hasn’t provided any more details about his account suspension—nor has Google, which TechCrunch contacted about the problem—but according to Wauters, “I have a feeling that this was merely an anomaly and Shatner’s Google+ account will live long and prosper once it’s reinstated.”
