This week, Google announced an update to its content policy, prohibiting the public display of sexually-explicit media over Blogger sites.
The company confirmed that blogs with these types of content will be made private by Mar. 23, though it's still allowing nudity under certain circumstances. Specifically, nudity is only allowed "if the content offers a substantial public benefit, for example in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts."
However, in another turn of events, recent reports stated that the Mountain View giant seemed to have changed its mind.
According to BBC, Google received "a ton of feedback" following its scheduled policy change. That said, it looks like users are not ready to embrace the set-up sought by the company.
Google informed that the massive feedback contained responses from people who have had accounts for quite some time.
The firm wrote, "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," Google clarified.
Users who wish to continue hosting sites with adult content are required to mark their blogs "adult,"CNN reported. As told by the outlet, Google claimed that it was never its intention to eradicate nudity out of Blogger's confines.
As we have previously noted, Google appeared to contradict its earlier stance on nudity and sexual activity, upon consideration that these are acts of free expression. The company reportedly said, "Censoring this content is contrary to a service that bases itself on freedom of expression."
Users are then given the options to mark their sites private or delete them once and for all -- if the policy is too heavy to bear. The latter is done by going to Settings > Other > Blog Tools > Delete This Blog.
Now, instead of marking the blog private, visitors will be led to a warning page indicating that the content under the hood is sexually-oriented.
Engadget speculated that Google may have realized that users will just switch platforms and move to Tumblr or the negative feedback was just too overwhelming.
Either way, supposedly-affected users should be happy about the retrograde, although commercial porn enthusiasts are still not in a very good situation.
What do you think about Google's change of policy? Would you rather see a conservative Blogger platform? We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.