Unfortunately, this is the way things go. If you are going to build a business on top of something offered by Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, etc, you will never rest easy because you should know your app can be killed at any time for any reason, right or wrong.
These companies are omnipotent and untouchable. They have these automated systems in place because they have determined them to be the most cost effective way of dealing with these issues. Even if there are specific cases that seem ridiculous, or clearly harmful to the company itself, in aggregate this is the system that works for them.
I learned this very early. For example, while in high school I had a (very) small business buying things locally and reselling on ebay. Despite having 100% positive feedback, a scam artist one day claimed to Paypal that I shipped him a brick when it was supposed to be a cell phone. The scammer had a brand new account with no feedback at all, and I had no previous issues, but Paypal decided to trust the scam artist over me with over 5 years of positive feedback. I refused to pay back the negative balance that Paypal claimed I owed them, and lost access to my account for over 15 years. During that time, I started a successful e-commerce business doing annual revenue of $5-10 million. I'd have used Paypal to process all customer payments had my account not been banned. Instead I integrated with Stripe, and Paypal lost out on upwards of $500,000 in processing fees (and counting).
But still, Paypal succeeds, and does not care.
Another example - I was an investor in a small dating app a few years ago that was doing quite well. Despite successful ad campaigns on Google, and in Apple's app store, Facebook just decided to one day block the advertising account, permanently and without reason. Despite vast effort (spanning multiple years!) to at least figure out why we were banned, no explanation was ever offered, and the app eventually was starved out due to inability to access a prime advertising channel that our larger competitors were able to access.
There is simply no way around this kind of thing. My advice is to never build a business that relies on one of these platforms - use the web to your advantage, don't get stuck behind someone else's walled garden. Try to make apps only ancillary to your business, not the main component. Be able to diversify advertising channels. Own your core competency - don't let someone else steal it overnight.
And finally the reason for the throwaway account, I believe there are rogue employees at these companies who can just shut down accounts for personal vendettas, bribery schemes, or just the lulz. We suspect that's what happened to us at facebook. So I do not want to jeopardize any current businesses I am running or investing in that is personally tied to me.
These companies are omnipotent and untouchable. They have these automated systems in place because they have determined them to be the most cost effective way of dealing with these issues. Even if there are specific cases that seem ridiculous, or clearly harmful to the company itself, in aggregate this is the system that works for them.
I learned this very early. For example, while in high school I had a (very) small business buying things locally and reselling on ebay. Despite having 100% positive feedback, a scam artist one day claimed to Paypal that I shipped him a brick when it was supposed to be a cell phone. The scammer had a brand new account with no feedback at all, and I had no previous issues, but Paypal decided to trust the scam artist over me with over 5 years of positive feedback. I refused to pay back the negative balance that Paypal claimed I owed them, and lost access to my account for over 15 years. During that time, I started a successful e-commerce business doing annual revenue of $5-10 million. I'd have used Paypal to process all customer payments had my account not been banned. Instead I integrated with Stripe, and Paypal lost out on upwards of $500,000 in processing fees (and counting).
But still, Paypal succeeds, and does not care.
Another example - I was an investor in a small dating app a few years ago that was doing quite well. Despite successful ad campaigns on Google, and in Apple's app store, Facebook just decided to one day block the advertising account, permanently and without reason. Despite vast effort (spanning multiple years!) to at least figure out why we were banned, no explanation was ever offered, and the app eventually was starved out due to inability to access a prime advertising channel that our larger competitors were able to access.
There is simply no way around this kind of thing. My advice is to never build a business that relies on one of these platforms - use the web to your advantage, don't get stuck behind someone else's walled garden. Try to make apps only ancillary to your business, not the main component. Be able to diversify advertising channels. Own your core competency - don't let someone else steal it overnight.
And finally the reason for the throwaway account, I believe there are rogue employees at these companies who can just shut down accounts for personal vendettas, bribery schemes, or just the lulz. We suspect that's what happened to us at facebook. So I do not want to jeopardize any current businesses I am running or investing in that is personally tied to me.