Google Ads suspends RACE developer’s account over alleged malicious software
The developer says Google rejected repeated appeals after flagging a US$500 campaign for “Malicious software” and “Compromised Site”.
Google Ads suspended an account used to promote RACE, a native macOS terminal multiplexer written in Rust, after the developer spent US$500 on a campaign. The developer says Google cited “Malicious software” and “Compromised Site” but did not identify the material that triggered the action.
The developer says repeated appeals were rejected without specific evidence or an explanation of why the information submitted failed to address the allegations. Google’s response to the claims was not included in the source material.
RACE manages terminal processes and can preserve shell sessions across application restarts. Its developer says the application is signed and notarised, and does not install malware, inject code into other applications, modify browser behaviour or conceal its process activity.
The developer also says race-term.com and downloads.race-term.com are static Cloudflare-hosted services, with downloads stored on Cloudflare R2. Checks reported by Google Safe Browsing and Google Search Console on 9 September 2026 showed no unsafe content or security issues, according to the developer.
Those results do not establish what Google Ads detected or whether the services use the same criteria. The developer says scans of the distributed application likewise found no malware, while acknowledging that RACE’s background subprocess management could resemble behaviour associated with security-sensitive software.
Version 1.0.39 reportedly added an application-clean-up change after the developer considered whether persistent background processes had contributed to the flag. The alleged trigger for the suspension remains unconfirmed.
