I recently had a "role" Google account terminated because I was (paraphrasing) "violating Google policies" by having multiple accounts. I didn't know they were sticklers about that.

(I don't much care because the account was just used for interacting with somebody else's Google-hosted junk but, if I had been using it for something serious, I have probably been frustrated.)

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B1FIDO 8 hours ago | parent [-]

There is no way, no possible way that Google prohibits the use of multiple accounts. They do not. They cannot. I just asked Gemini and I checked the actual TOS. It does not, in any way, prohibit these uses.

In fact, this is plainly evident by the way they give you tools to operate them in a systematic way. You can add multiple accounts to a single Android "user". You can add them to a single Google Chromebook account under one signed-in account. You can add multiple accounts separately to the same Chromebook.

You can add multiple accounts with the same names, the same birthdates, and the same Driver License. I've validated at least two YouTube channels by showing exactly the same ID.

Google did not terminate your account for the reason you state. You are not telling us all the background information.

Google may indeed terminate multiple accounts for the same person because of TOS violations. They will definitely link and associate your accounts, so making an "alt account" for misbehavior is not safe. If my "alt account" is compromised or violates TOS, then I can expect they will discipline all 6 equally, because they're all linked.

But operating multiple accounts is very explicitly supported by Google, and by Microsoft as well, I will say. I don't know about Apple. Facebook definitely prohibited this in the past, although you can maintain multiple "profiles" and "pages" that have unique settings and personalities.

	▲	EvanAnderson 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Apparently my account "violated TOS" (though I don't see how). The other account was used to interact with a Google Workspace in 2016, and hasn't been used since. I don't particularly care to waste mental energy trying to figure out the methodology behind Google's decision here. This happening seemed kinda sketchy to me (because I've heard of people having several Google accounts) but, like I said, I didn't really care too much. Anyway, here's how it went down: In 2016 I was working w/ a Customer who was using some Google product (I believe Workspace) and I have to have a Google account to interact w/ it. Because I didn't care for them to see my "personal" Google account I make this one-off account. This account is a Google account w/o Gmail (i.e. the username is not "@gmail.com"). That may be a factor. Over the years I'd receive notifications that Google was going to delete the account for inactivity. I'd logon again to keep it active. On 2026-01-12 I got a notification that my old "role" Google account was going to be deleted for being inactive for two years. I decided I wanted to keep it so I attempted to logon. The password in my vault didn't work. I found that perplexing, so I did a "Forgot password" workflow. As part of that I was offered an SMS option. I used the telephone number I use for my main Google account. For sure they "know" I'm the same operator of both accounts. I don't believe somebody guessed the password on this account and was using it because (a) I was notified it was inactive, and (b) the password was a random 16 character alphanumeric string used only for this account. Something was clearly sketchy about the password being "wrong", though. I completed the "Forgot password" workflow on the "role" account and got access. I decided to enable TOTP and my "real" Gmail account as the recovery contact. Everything seemed fine. On 2026-01-13 I received a message as-follows: > From: Google <no-reply@accounts.google.com> > To: MyUsername@NotGmail.example.com > Subject: Your Google Account has been disabled > It looks like this account was created or used with multiple other accounts to violate Google's policies. The account might have been created by a computer program or bot. > If you think your account was disabled by mistake, submit an appeal as soon as possible. > Disabled accounts are eventually deleted. You’ll need to submit an appeal soon to keep your emails, contacts, photos, and other data saved in your Google Account. > If you live in the European Union (EU) or are an EU citizen, there may be additional resolution options available to you.