Google Backtracks On Blogger Nudity Ban Following Backlash
The prohibition of alcohol in the United States lasted 13 years, which is 13 years longer than Google's ban on pornography for its Blogger platform. Announced earlier this week, Google's policy change on sexually explicit content was to go into effect late next month, but Google has now changed its mind after listening to complaints.
"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. So rather than implement this change, we’ve decided to step up enforcement around our existing policy prohibiting commercial porn," Google said.
On Tuesday, Google laid out the intended policy change, telling Bloggers that their blogs would be marked private after March 23, 2015, if they contained sexually explicit or graphic nude images or videos. Google's reasoning was that it wanted Blogger's policies to fall in line with its other hosted products.
Blogger users quickly cried foul, claiming that marking their blogs as private would be a death knell. Affected users were especially ticked because prior to the announced change, Google's policy stated that "censoring this content is contrary to a service that bases itself on freedom of expression."
Their voices were heard and the new policy, as it stands, will not go into effect. Instead, users hosting sexually explicit content need only continue to mark their blogs as "adult" and follow the same rules that were already in place, such as not posting nude images without the subject's consent.
"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. So rather than implement this change, we’ve decided to step up enforcement around our existing policy prohibiting commercial porn," Google said.
On Tuesday, Google laid out the intended policy change, telling Bloggers that their blogs would be marked private after March 23, 2015, if they contained sexually explicit or graphic nude images or videos. Google's reasoning was that it wanted Blogger's policies to fall in line with its other hosted products.
Blogger users quickly cried foul, claiming that marking their blogs as private would be a death knell. Affected users were especially ticked because prior to the announced change, Google's policy stated that "censoring this content is contrary to a service that bases itself on freedom of expression."
Their voices were heard and the new policy, as it stands, will not go into effect. Instead, users hosting sexually explicit content need only continue to mark their blogs as "adult" and follow the same rules that were already in place, such as not posting nude images without the subject's consent.
