Google took a stand against displaying pornographic content on Blogger, a free blogging service used by millions of users worldwide.
But the company's stance was not appreciated by its bloggers, who insisted that such a move will restrict their freedom of expression. After a severe backlash from some long-term bloggers, Google decided to reverse its ban policy that was to go into effect on 23 March.
Google's original decision to ban the use of images and videos that displays sexually explicit content or graphic nudity on Blogger was announced earlier this week. It wasn't the first time Google cracked down on porn. The web giant limited pornographic ads on Blogger in July and decided in 2013 to remove blogs that contained advertisements for online porn sites. But the search titan's latest stand against porn on Blogger was not accepted.
"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," Jessica Pelegio, Google's social product support manager, wrote in a post on Google product forums. "So rather than implement this change, we've decided to step up enforcement around our existing policy prohibiting commercial porn."
The ban lift, however, comes with some conditions. Bloggers must ensure that blogs containing sexually explicit content must be flagged as "adult." The page warning will alert visitors about the NSFW content.
In its defence, Google said it had no intention to completely ban nudity from Blogger. Even with the ban in place, Google would have allowed sexually explicit content that "offers a substantial public benefit, for example in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts."
Other blog sites like WordPress permit use of "mature content" but limit any content displaying explicit sexual acts. There are some sites such as Medium that strictly ban pornographic content on their sites. The website was founded by Evan Williams, who co-founded Twitter and the person behind the company that created Blogger.
