Just a few days ago, Google said that it is shutting down the account of those who are using its blogging service for posting sexually suggestive material. This time, however, the search giant has changed its mind and announced that it will continue banning porn only if it is posted commercially.
Google is retracting a previous announcement on banning sexually explicit images from its popular service known as Blogger. The company said that users of the blogging service are given one month to delete images that are "sexually explicit" or those that display graphic nudity, which also includes videos. There was also an option to set the viewing of the images to private and also make them available solely for the site's administrators.
The decision has received sustained criticism, which prompted Google to reverse the initial announcement. The updated announcement now says that such accounts with sexually explicit images will have a warning page posted prior to the main page.
"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," wrote Jessica Pelegio, social product support manager at Google, on the support forum page of the company.
"So rather than implement this change, we've decided to step up enforcement around our existing policy prohibiting commercial porn. 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," Pelegio continued.
Blogs that are said to be labeled "adult" have a wide range of categories and that they include, among others, sex news blogs, art nude photographers, sex toy reviewers, romance book writers, transgender activists and LGBT diaries. To push through with the ban would mean that Google is not only removing "standard" adult blogs but is also deleting a huge number of members and functions of various communities.
Google explained that nudity on the site would be allowed only if the "content offers a substantial public benefit, for example in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts." Instead of the solid and seemingly permanent ban, Google plans to crack down in a stricter sense on explicit material published for commercial gain. It has already done the same move for Blogger in 2013.
Adult content could remain on Blogger but only when the material posted belongs to the user or that he has the permission to post it.
