Backlash: Citing negative feedback from users, Google has abandoned its plan to ban adult content on its blogging site Blogger.
The turnaround occurred approximately 48 hours after the internet goliath announced its plan.
Instead, Google will “step up enforcement” of its existing policy prohibiting commercial porn, Jessica Pelegio, the company’s social product support manager, wrote on Google Product Forums on Friday.
“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.
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.”
As a result, Blogger users can continue to tag any blog with sexually explicit content as “adult” that is placed behind a warning page.
The Inquisitr notes:
Before the ban occurred, Blogger was the go-to site for pornographic and erotic blogging. Well-known bloggers like Zoe Margolis of Girl With a one Track Mind got their names on Blogger. Now, according to Goggle’s newest update, blogs such a Zoe’s will no longer be visible by the public. While Google states that they will not delete any content, they will set pages to private if any nudity or sexually explicit language is detected, according to PC Magazine.
Google announced earlier this week that, starting on March 23, Blogger users would no longer be able to post sexually explicit pictures or videos on the platform.
