February 28, 2015 | Online

Google backs down from Blogger porn ban

The other day, Google told all of its Blogger users that XXX content would result in the termination of a person's account (although existing sites with adult content would be permitted to remain as long as they were set to private). The ban was to have taken place on March 23.

Now Google has altered its position. Only sites that sell porn will be targeted for termination.

"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," explained Jessica Pelegio, Google's social product support manager. "So rather than implement this change, we've decided to step up enforcement around our existing policy prohibiting commercial porn."

She added: “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.”