February 27 (2am PST) Update to all news about Google’s Blogger listed below: Google reverses porn ban on Blogger after backlash (VentureBeat) /end update
Until Monday, Google’s Blogger platform previously allowed “images or videos that contain nudity or sexual activity,” and stated that “Censoring this content is contrary to a service that bases itself on freedom of expression.”
That changed on a whim yesterday when Google ripped the rug out from under its previously-compliant grownup Blogger users, who were told they’d be disappeared if Google decided their blogs contain “sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video.”
Google says, “We’ll still allow nudity presented in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts, or presented where there are other substantial benefits to the public from not taking action on the content.”
Google’s new terms make sex for reproduction okay, but sex for pleasure totally not okay. Sound familiar, sex educators?
I wrote about it for ZDNet yesterday, and put all my Google sex censorship research into this article and timeline; it’s all over the news now. Google hasn’t commented, and this is a strategy which expects it all to just go away by saying nothing, and not acknowledging the problem. (Hey, it works for great companies like Snapchat.) I mean, we can all say things about Google and censorship, but now we have a very concrete, public and well-documented example of the company saying one thing and then doing exactly the opposite regarding content censorship and its platforms.
You know what’s really stupid here? I’d bet that if given the option, tens of thousands of people would pay Blogger for a premium account to avoid the hassle of packing everything up and moving out by March.
In the meantime, I know a lot of people who have been using Blogger – since 1999! – to post their lives, and everything that encompasses. If you’re (rightfully) worried about how Google’s automated system will most likely screw you without recourse the minute someone who doesn’t like women, or gays, or trans people, or BDSM, or sex for pleasure, or sexual expression in Western countries decides to report you… Here are a few solutions where writers, artists, LGBT people, and yes, the porny people can move to slightly safer free platforms or not-free but self-hosted solutions, with somewhat minimized headaches.
- You don’t need to hire movers or buy me beer (but I’ll drink it!) — pack it up for moving by following these easy steps.
- DreamHost reached out to me on Twitter to say they’re simple to use and sex-positive, and are totally happy to take all the business that Blogger is about to throw away. DreamHost has a one-click WordPress/DreamPress installation, then instructions on how to move from Blogger to WordPress.
- I don’t recommend moving to WordPress.com itself: It has a lot of stupid restrictions on “mature” content (including no affiliate links – so erotic writers, this is not an option if you plan to link to your books on Amazon). WordPress’s own rules feel like an afterthought from a system that doesn’t want to deal with communities it doesn’t really understand. Seriously, what idiot lumps child abuse with erotica in a terms sheet? Gross.
- You can move it all to a Tumblr blog easily. Do it from within Tumblr (here’s a simple how-to), or use this online tool to move from Blogger to Tumblr.
- Hostgator has this easy guide, How Can I Transfer My Blogger Site to HostGator Hosting?
- GoDaddy is also an option, with one-click WordPress installs and pricing plans with customer support, but keep in mind that sometimes it’s a Very Bad Daddy.
PS – hi to new TinyNibbles visitors thanks to AFP wire news!
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Everyone is welcome at http://ello.co
I’ve reviewed (by that I mean, slogged) through a bunch of Terms of Services of a couple dozen alternate blogging sites, paid and free, and found that most have a problem with adult content. It should be noted, for the record, that most of these sites have discussed their “funding issues” on their site, as well. I guess there are just not that many people interested in blogs about people’s “Journeys with Jesus” and “First-Wave Feminism”. Anyway, I found an interesting conglomerate of sites that don’t have any problem with adult content, at least for now:
1. Quora (does have blogging features now)
2. LiveJournal
3. Typepad (may be paid only now, though)
4. Soup.io (Austrian-based, but a tad short on blogging features)
5. Silvrback
Some of these also include some conversion features from other blogs. A few others don’t warn you up front about adult content. This may or may not mean you’ll have no problem with them, but trying a free blog and seeing what happens is an option:
1. Posthaven
2. Sett
3. Weebly
4. Postagon
Google has been shutting down services for a while now, such as Reader. They’ve lost the “blogging war” to WordPress, and if they think they can’t make money on a service, they’ll shut it down. As previously mentioned, they have no compunctions about using sex-negativity to serve as a smokescreen hiding the fact that their business is shrinking.
I’m sure that the R-rated movies on YouTube aren’t going anywhere. But the traffic to Blogger is going to hit the wall fast. You would have to be a pretty naive Internet user to trust Google with anything of any importance at this point.
It appears that Google has given in, to a degree, but they have given themselves a lot of room to be arbitrary:
https://productforums.google.com/forum/?hl=en&rd=2#!category-topic/blogger/how-do-i/other/desktop—other-please-specify/chrome/jAep2mLabQY
If you post a picture of a derriere on your blog, and you don’t have a Certificate of Compliance on file, Google is still reserving the right to go after you. I think most bloggers, who aren’t posting “commercial porn” are going to be OK, but I think that moving to another platform, paid if you can, would still be a good idea.
I have 4 blogs in Blogger.
1 with sex contents.
2 with no sex contents.
1 technical.
I gonna remove all them. I don´t thrust anymore im Blogger.
Thank you for this article! I’ve been posting about my sexual experiences for a couple of years now with Blogger and I was kind of taken aback by Google’s puritanical stance. I was able to move my blog to Tumblr thanks to your article in less than five minutes. Kudos to you for providing this info. As for Google, the 19th century called, they want their attitudes to sex back.
“Seriously, what idiot lumps child abuse with erotica in a terms sheet?” – actually, most internet content providers. This is so depressing.
duly note the humor trait by deviantart: “or otherwise objectionable”
instagram : [no] violent, nude, partially nude, […], unlawful, […], hateful, pornographic or sexually suggestive photos
etsy : [content shall not] be obscene or contain child pornography
deviantart : [do not post content that is] obscene, offensive, blasphemous, pornographic, unlawful, threatening, menacing, abusive, harmful, […], vulgar, illegal or otherwise objectionable
wordpress : please don’t post […] explicit images or video of sexual acts […] images of child pornography
pinterest : [don’t post anything that] is sexually explicit or pornographic, exploits or presents minors in a sexual way, or promotes adult sexual services
dailymotion : [sont interdits] les contenus à caractère pornographique et les contenus incitant à la violence physique […]
vimeo : you may not upload any video [which contains] sexually explicit content or pornography […] unlawful acts or extreme violence
As I wrote (in French) in this article, it is as if in real life, you were to warn people: “this is a library, so please don’t disturb fellow readers — no eating, no shouting, no phonecalls, no pulling old ladies by the hair or burning newborn babies, thank you”
Nice the see the BBC finishing their little article with a quote from you:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31602891
Stay away from Dreamhost! Unless they have massively upgraded their servers across the board they oversell their services. I was with them for six years with multiple accounts. While I had issues from the beginning and didn’t really know butter, the last two most of my sites were down more often then up. I was always getting dropped connections. It got to the point that I couldn’t even makes posts anymore! I had many tickets with support, most which pretty much said it was my issue and gave me the same fixes I had already implemented.
Out of frustration I copied my main site wholesale to iWFHosting about six months ago. With no changes at all, I found it a night and day difference. I have slowly moved every other account over with the same results.
Arvixe has been a good host also. Both are adult friendly. Essentially you’re just looking for any host (which is pretty much all of them,) that uses CPanel though. CPanel is the has one-click installs for Wordpress and a large number of other platforms if you feel that you
Another thing to be aware of is that a self hosted Wordpress install has an “Import From Blogger” Plugin, you access it from Tools -> Import, install the plugin, go back to the same menu and follow the directions.
I think it will soon be possible to circumvent such censorship in the future, decentralization is the way to a free internet >> http://www.technologyreview.com/news/534501/bittorrent-tests-websites-hosted-in-the-crowd-not-the-cloud/
Thank you, Violet, for putting together a good chunk of resources for those that are about to be locked out of Google’s community.
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