Google Clamping Down On Nudity, Adult Content On Blogger Platform
MOUNTAIN VIEW (CBS SF) -- Google is about to introduce a ban on nudity, pornography and sexually explicit content on its Blogger platform in an about-face from previous policy.
According to a Blogger support page, starting March 23rd, Google will no longer allow users "to publicly share images and video that are sexually explicit or show graphic nudity on Blogger."
Although the content will not be deleted, any blog on the Blogger platform that is found in violation of the policy will no longer appear in search results and have access restricted to only the author and registered users invited to view the content.
The policy change indicated Google would allow some exceptions. "We'll still allow nudity if the content offers a substantial public benefit, for example in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts," the support page says.
Previously, Google had allowed nudity and adult content on the Blogger platform which it acquired in 2003, citing "freedom of expression" in its previous content policy statement.
Now, Google says users should still be able to express what they want on the service, but the new Blogger content policy says that "in order to uphold these values, we need to curb abuses that threaten our ability to provide this service and the freedom of expression it encourages. As a result, there are some boundaries on the type of content that can be hosted with Blogger."
The last time Google instituted a policy change to its Blogger platform was in 2013, when Google banned Blogger-hosted sites that monetized adult content by providing links to external adult sites.
In 2013, Yahoo banned adult content from its newly-acquired Tumblr blogs, only to reverse itself 24 hours later after an online backlash.
