Google Backpedals On Its Blogger Porn Ban Just 3 Days Later

Days after announcing that it would begin cracking down on sexually explicit content on its Blogger platform, Google has reversed its decision.

The changes, which would have forbid public access to sexually explicit blogs, were slated to go into effect next month. But the policy change generated substantial backlash. Major criticisms pointed out that some users had been posting non-commercial pornographic content for years; to many, the move seemed too sweeping and random.

Hello everyone,

This week, we announced a change to Blogger’s porn policy. 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. 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.

Bloggers whose content is consistent with this and other policies do not need to make any changes to their blogs.

Thank you for your continued feedback.

The Blogger Team

A Google spokesperson said earlier this week the Blogger policy was being updated “to fall in line” with other Google products, like YouTube and Google+. Technically, it wouldn’t have deleted pornography, but rather shielded it from public eyes. Bloggers would have been required to send individual invites for people to review their content.

“The fact that you haven’t deleted our content is of grim consolation when you kill off our entire userbase!” one blogger protesting the change wrote. “We cannot possibly invite hundreds of thousands of people one by one.”

Google said that “adult content” will still be placed behind a warning, if appropriate.