Only a few days ago, Google announced that blogs containing images and videos that are sexually explicit or show graphic nudity on the Blogger platform will have until the end of next month before being forced offline by by the company. Now it appears that this won"t happen after all, as Google has taken what appears to be a massive U-turn from its previous statement.
The company received a lot of criticism from bloggers who had been on the platform for more than a decade and were vexed at Google"s decision considering they might have posted sexually explicit content in the past, and it would be nearly impossible for them to track down the content and delete it before being forced offline.
Following the backlash from these veteran bloggers, Jessica Pelegio, Social Product Support Manager at Google states that there will be a blog filtering system which will place the adult content under a separate "adult content warning page" saying that:
This week, we announced a change to Blogger"s porn policy. We"ve had a ton of feedback, in particular about the introduction of a retroactive change (some people have had accounts for 10+ years), but also about the negative impact on individuals who post sexually explicit content to express their identities. Blog owners should continue to mark any blogs containing sexually explicit content as "adult" so that they can be placed behind an "adult content" warning page.
Had the ban on pornographic images actually been imposed, a lot of bloggers would have surely jumped ship to Tumblr or other websites where they would be free to publish any type of content. Google"s content policy for Blogger states:
It is our belief that censoring this content is contrary to a service that bases itself on freedom of expression.
This consequently means that bloggers are allowed to share sexually explicit content as long as they own it and they have the legal permissions required to post it.
Source: Google Products Forums via Engagdet |Internet Porn image via Shuttershock