Google suspends #huyannet Team Drive for spamming thousands of Drive accounts with copyright infringing material

This morning Google took to the official Google Drive help forum to announce that they have suspended certain domains for policy violations. Specifically, the step was taken after a certain #huyannet Team Drive account was found spamming thousands of Drive accounts with terabytes of copyright infringing material. Google employee Ben addressed the victims and said:

Thank you for your feedback on this behavior taking place in Team Drives. Domains engaging in this behavior have been suspended for policy violations

As can be seen in the above screenshot, the company also advised the affected Drive users – both consumer and G Suite account holders – to refresh their browser and clear cache, which should remove #huyannet Team Drive displayed on the left hand navigation panel of their Drive page. In case, it continues to show, they are further suggested to contact Google support.

So what really happened?

Let’s give you important details related to the matter. It was in the last week of October, when both consumer and G Suite Drive users brought to notice a random #huyannet Team Drive account that was added in the My Drive section of their Google Drive.

All those affected – and mind you the number is in thousands – reported that they were made part of this suspicious #huyannet Team Drive account without their consent, and they cannot remove themselves from the group.

While victims only had view access to the content hosted on the #huyannet Team Drive, what’s worrying was the account in question contained terabytes of copyrighted movies and tv shows. Here’s how one of the affected user explained the problem:

Following is a screenshot shared by an affected user, clearly showing the unwanted #huyannet Team Drive and limited access privileges:

The problem being widespread was escalated by an expert a few days back, soon after which the it got officially acknowledged – as already mentioned above – by Google this morning.

As mentioned earlier, if you were among the ones affected and the problem continues to persist, you are suggested to contact google support – consumer user or GSuite user – for further help.

Google Drive Help forum

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