Google is banning porn on Blogger
In the statement, Google adds that existing blogs that feature explicit material will be made private - so they won't show up in public searches. It means private content will only be available to view by the owner, admins, or the people they share their page(s) with.
However, Blogger will still allow nudity if the "content offers a substantial public benefit, for example in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts," Google adds. This is where the line may be blurred, given the whole subjective nature of art. It will probably be forever debated.
Overall, though, each blog is at Google's discretion, and Blogger users have until the March 23 date to either mark their site as private, or remove the sexually explicit images and video that may be displayed. An alternative is to remove the blog altogether, Google notes.
To announce the news, Google sent out a letter to its bloggers who may be affected. This tweet was spotted by the Verge.
9to5Google says that the last time Google updated Blogger's terms was in 2013. Then, Google banned sites hosting adult content from "monetising that content with ads" - so people couldn't make money via the service for displaying anything explicit. Really, this was a much bigger deal. In the past, people made money hosting porn content on Blogger (and other pre-made platforms), which was much easier than registering and setting up a web domain. This latest move is simply a blanket ban by Google. It has given no reason for the changes.
Mainstream hosting platforms are cutting down on explicit material. The move follows video-sharing app Vine, which also recently changed its policy to hide pornographic and sexual footage. It did so in March last year, the Verge reports.