No More Fap! Google Bans Sexually Explicit Content From ‘Blogger’ Platform
"If your existing blog doesn’t have any sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video on it, you won’t notice any changes. If your existing blog does have sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video, your blog will be made private after March 23, 2015," Google stated in a notice to Blogger users. "No content will be deleted, but private content can only be seen by the owner or admins of the blog and the people who the owner has shared the blog with."
Prior to the rule changes, Google allowed sexually explicit content on its Blogger platform so long as the user marked it as Adult. The search giant even took things a step further by emphasizing, "censoring this content is contrary to a service that bases itself on freedom of expression." It was all fair game, save for illegal explicit content, explicit images and videos shared without the user's consent, and making money from adult content.
Google claims the policy change will only affect a small number of users, though the minority is proving vocal, both because the invitation-only system will effectively kill off their blogs and due to the short notice (just 30 days).
"Based on the information I have available at this time, I find it disrespectful to users for Google to announce apparently with only 30 days notice that they are summarily banning most explicit materials from Blogger," Lauren Weinstein, co-founder of People For Internet Responsibility, posted to Google+. "It is utterly within their rights to do so, but the lack of longer notice (absent specific legal constraints) and a total lack of any explanation in the announcement for this change (only perfunctory operational details) are extremely disappointing. You can do much better than this, Google. I know you can. "
Google's reasoning is that it wants Blogger's policies to fall in line with its other hosted products, such as YouTube and Google+, both of which prohibit sexually explicit content.
