Porn banned on Blogger blogging platform? That's an old story!
A month back, Google announced that it would ban explicit matter on public blogs on Blogger platform. The ban was to come into effect last fortnight. That didn't happen.
Google says, it has decided to live with its existing content policy. This policy allows bloggers to post nudity or explicit sex-oriented material on blogs provided the 'adult content setting' is turned on. The setting in turn warns visitors about the content. In addition, Google says, "commercial porn will continue to be prohibited".
Immediately after Google decided to ban porn, a large number of established bloggers protested, saying that the move was against the avowed policy of Google not to curb freedom of expression on the web. Many of them feared that if Google forced them to go private, they would lose all links, shared data and community participation that they had generated over years.
What is Indian Top Blogs stand on this?
As a decency-oriented site, are we at ITB peeved, you might ask. Well, we are not peeved, but wonder why Google went for banning porn in the first place? You can search on Google whatever you want, in a fraction of second; is sex-oriented blogging worse than that? Then, where do you draw the line? Also, would bloggers not go to places like Tumblr that allow more anonymous posting of any material? Frankly, to us it looked like prohibition; we all know that when governments ban liquor sale, illicit liquor takes over and governments end earning less while people consume lots of spurious liquor and illegal trade prospers.
Good that Google stopped before it could create this lose-lose situation.
Google says, it has decided to live with its existing content policy. This policy allows bloggers to post nudity or explicit sex-oriented material on blogs provided the 'adult content setting' is turned on. The setting in turn warns visitors about the content. In addition, Google says, "commercial porn will continue to be prohibited".
Immediately after Google decided to ban porn, a large number of established bloggers protested, saying that the move was against the avowed policy of Google not to curb freedom of expression on the web. Many of them feared that if Google forced them to go private, they would lose all links, shared data and community participation that they had generated over years.
What is Indian Top Blogs stand on this?
As a decency-oriented site, are we at ITB peeved, you might ask. Well, we are not peeved, but wonder why Google went for banning porn in the first place? You can search on Google whatever you want, in a fraction of second; is sex-oriented blogging worse than that? Then, where do you draw the line? Also, would bloggers not go to places like Tumblr that allow more anonymous posting of any material? Frankly, to us it looked like prohibition; we all know that when governments ban liquor sale, illicit liquor takes over and governments end earning less while people consume lots of spurious liquor and illegal trade prospers.
Good that Google stopped before it could create this lose-lose situation.
