deleted by creator

Click bait is anything that is designed to bait people into clicking a link. Virtually every headline and content title on the internet is click bait to some level.

Malicious click bait is when headlines either outright lie, or imply things that aren’t accurate to the content.

The phrasing of this title implies that the creation of a privacy tool is what the creator got arrested for, which is in fact inaccurate to the content, as the reason wasn’t creating the tool, the reason was using the tool for money laundering.

So imo it’s 100% fair to call this title malicious clickbait

The title is click bait because it falsely implies that the privacy part of the tool is why the creator is being penalised, rather than the money laundering part.

It’s a bit like writing a headline about a drunk driver killing a family of four and making the headline “He bought a red car. Now he’s going to jail”

The article headline is wildly misleading, bordering on being just a straight up lie.

Google didn’t ban the developer for reporting the material, they didn’t even know he reported it, because he did so anonymously, and to a child protection org, not Google.

Google’s automatic tools, correctly, flagged the CSAM when he unzipped the data and subsequently nuked his account.

Google’s only failure here was to not unban on his first or second appeal. And whilst that is absolutely a big failure on Google’s part, I find it very understandable that the appeals team generally speaking won’t accept “I didn’t know the folder I uploaded contained CSAM” as a valid ban appeal reason.

It’s also kind of insane how this article somehow makes a bigger deal out of this devolper being temporarily banned by Google, than it does of the fact that hundreds of CSAM images were freely available online and openly sharable by anyone, and to anyone, for god knows how long.