Google reverses porn ban on Blogger after backlash

Just three days after announcing it was banning sexually explicit material on Blogger, Google said today it had changed its mind after an outcry from many longtime users of the blogging platform.

“This week, we announced a change to Blogger’s porn policy,” wrote Jessica Pelegio, social product support manager at Google, in a post in a product forum. “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.”

That existing policy requires blog owners with explicit content to mark them as “adult.” That triggers an “adult content” warning page.

When Google quietly announced the porn ban earlier this week, it caught users off guard.

Under that policy change, which had been set to take effect on March 23, Google said it would make private any blog with explicit content. Porn was going to be expressly forbidden on any new blogs created after that date.

The company did not say at the time why it had decided to make the change, more than a decade after it had acquired Blogger.

But the move quickly came under fire, with some calling it an attack on free speech and others labeling it an example of Google’s prudishness.

Such moves are bound to be controversial. Almost two years ago, Tumblr was heavily criticized after removing blogs with explicit content from its search functions. Following a similar backlash, Tumblr also reversed course.