Dennis Cooper’s Blog Returns After Google Restoration
Writer Dennis Cooper’s blog “The Weaklings” will return online on August 29, 2016, after being deleted by Google on June 27 along with his Gmail account. The blog, hosted on Blogger since 2002, contained writings, research, photographs, performance documentation, and animated GIF storytelling inspired by “Zac’s Haunted House.” Cooper hired a lawyer to negotiate with Google, initially receiving no response. After lengthy talks, Google agreed to restore the content. The deletion was reportedly triggered by a user complaint about a post from over ten years ago related to a Self-Portrait Day challenge, where Cooper invited readers to submit material on what they found sexy. He claimed he created a separate adult-content section with warnings, but the complaint targeted the main blog. Cooper denies publishing child pornography. The restored blog will be at a new URL and Cooper must manually re-upload data.
Key facts
- Dennis Cooper’s blog “The Weaklings” was deleted by Google on June 27, 2016.
- The blog had been active since 2002 on Blogger.
- Cooper’s Gmail account was also suspended.
- Cooper hired a lawyer to negotiate with Google.
- Google agreed to restore the content after lengthy talks.
- The blog will return online on August 29, 2016, at a new URL.
- The deletion was reportedly due to a complaint about a Self-Portrait Day post from 2006.
- Cooper must manually re-upload all data.
Entities
Artists
- Dennis Cooper
Institutions
- Blogger
- The Guardian
- Centre Pompidou
- Whitney Biennale
Locations
- Paris
- France
- California
- United States