Google says it has no plans again about forcing sexually explicit blogs on its Blogger platform to become private after receiving negative feedback from users. Google will instead, “step up enforcement” of its existing policy prohibiting commercial porn, the company’s Social Product Support Manager, Jessica Pelegio, wrote on Google Product Forums.
However, after “a ton of feedback,” Pelegio said the firm had decided to continue with its current policy instead. The Google social product support manager said that explicit blogs must continue to identify themselves as “adult.”
“This means a warning page is shown before readers are transferred to the site,” she said.
According to her, Google also reserves the right to add an “adult” tag to Blogger blogs if it feels the description is appropriate. The “acceptable use” policy link currently redirects users to a posted message, which read,
“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.”
The message added, “As long as bloggers have correctly identified their adult blogs they need take no further action.”
According to Reuters and the British Broadcasting Corporation, Google had originally proposed forcing existing explicit blogs to go private from next month, and said it would potentially take down blogs created after its March 23 deadline.
Meanwhile, shortly after Google made its decision known on its product forum, it was discovered that YouTube immediately took down pornographic videos.
It was gathered that YouTube took down pornographic videos after it was discovered that some users had disguised them by giving them Irish language titles.
Until last week, anyone who searched for the Irish word for film would have been presented with a series of explicit videos.
Maitíú Ó Coimín, who is a journalist with the Irish language website, Tuairisc, highlighted the issue.
He said, “My flat mate is a media student in Galway who was looking up [the Irish word for film] on YouTube for a project.
“I looked a bit further into it, and there were about 15 to 20 films of a questionable nature.”
The films were uploaded by four different accounts that were all registered on the same day last October, he said.
“The accounts all have an Asian woman as a profile picture,” he said.
“These were real pornographic films.”
The phrasing of the videos’ descriptions suggests that the account holders were not Irish speakers but used an online translation tool.
A YouTube spokesperson said when the issue was flagged, “our team was quick to take action”.
“YouTube’s community guidelines clearly state that sexually explicit content is not allowed on our site.
“We remove videos and channels that violate our policies when flagged for our attention.
“YouTube staff review flagged videos 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to determine whether they violate our community guidelines.”
However, the Internet Users Associations has continued to condemn Google’s decision to forbid users of its Blogger platform to share images and videos of ‘explicitly’ sexual content, saying it was an attack on freedom of expression.
Speaking ahead of the World Mobile Congress in Spain this week, the President of the IUA, Victor Domingo, told Spanish news agency, Efe, that Google shouldn’t have taken the decision in the first place.
“Not all nudity necessarily constitutes pornography,” Domingo said, lamenting that Google stuck to its decision, “many bloggers would have shut down their blogs and would have been thrown out of job because they will not be able to remain public.”
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