Google bans adult content on its blogging platform

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February 25, 2015 | Online

Google bans adult content on its blogging platform

Last year Google banned XXX companies from advertising through its AdWords program. This year, it plans to stop anyone using Blogger, a popular free blogging platform, from sharing pictures and videos that are sexually explicit.

Google sent out a warning to Blogger clients yesterday that they have until March 23 to remove all sexually explicit images from their sites. The reason for the change was not explained.

Existing blogs that are not cleansed will not be removed; instead Google will switched them to the "private" setting so that they are no longer searchable online. However, any new blog with explicit images that is not set to "private" by its editor will be deleted by Google.

Nude photos of an artistic or educational nature will be permitted. (Let's just hope Google doesn't rely on the same moderators as Facebook, who seem to find two men kissing or women breastfeeding to be objectionable.)

“If you’d rather take your blog down altogether, you can export your blog as a .xml file or archive your blog's text and images using Google Takeout,” Google advised.

Until now, Google had no issue with adult content on Blogger. In fact, its policy was porn-positive. "Censoring this content is contrary to a service that bases itself on freedom of expression,” the policy said.

On the one hand this is a very powerful strike against a company that says it values freedom of expression. On the other hand, the new policy will remove thousands of sites that are sharing pirated material.

Google Bans Porn on Blogger [PC Mag]

Google bans porn from Blogger [CNN Money]