The Google-owned Blogger sent an email Wednesday night to users with content labeled “adult.” It wasn’t a friendly check-in.
Here’s the email Blogger accounts got late tonight from Google. Many blogs will be deleted; no definition of ‘adult’ pic.twitter.com/V1afmeq84r
— violet blue ® (@violetblue) June 27, 2013
By June 30, Blogger’s new policy will strictly prohibit the monetization of adult content on the platform. Google will remove any blogs “that are adult in nature and are displaying advertisements for adult websites.”
On Twitter, adult bloggers like Violet Blue questioned the site’s definition of “adult.” The email did not define the term, but it went out only to those Google-owned sites that self-identify as “adult.”
The @Blogger email provides no guidance on what they consider “adult websites” or advertising: like, Amazon book links for an erotic author?
— violet blue ® (@violetblue) June 27, 2013
Deleting @Blogger blogs en masse will break sections of – damage – the internet. The blatant disregard for that alone sickens me.
— violet blue ® (@violetblue) June 27, 2013
Like with Posterous, deleting blogs is damage to the internet. Seriously: WTF @Google. Adult art is free speech; porn is legal in the US.
— violet blue ® (@violetblue) June 27, 2013
Google’s @Blogger will delete scores of blogs that have existed since 1999 on Monday under its vague new anti-sex policy purge. It’s wrong.
— violet blue ® (@violetblue) June 27, 2013
Blogger’s current content policy allows users to publish adult images and videos that contain nudity and sexual activity, provided they categorize their blog appropriately in the settings panel. But by identifying as “adult,” these blogs were singled out to be deleted.
It seems though the wording on the new policy isn’t that different, this is the first time specific action will be taken on a specific date. Sex bloggers have three days to move their blogs, some of which have been hosted by Blogger since 1999, to another platform.
H/T Twitter | Photo via Ed Yourdan/Flickr
