Google Censorship

Google has announced that as of March 23rd, porn will be banned from public view on blogs hosted by Blogger. Google said As of that date:

You won't be able to publicly share images and video that are sexually explicit or show graphic nudity

As some sort of trivial concession adult material is still allowed on private blogs where readers are individually signed up to the blog.

From March 23rd any Blogger blogs hosting racy video or pics will be made private. Which usually means that only the owner will be able to see the content.

Nudity will still be permitted on public blogs if the content offers a substantial public benefit, for example in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts.

Google's not saying why it's made this decision, or why it's given Blogger members just a month in which to act.

Update: Google backs off

28th February 2015. See  article from  movie-censorship.com

Google has changed its mind about banning sexually explicit blogs on its Blogger platform.

After a ton of feedback the firm has decided to continue with its current policy instead, it says.

Explicit blogs must continue to identify themselves as adult . This means a warning page is shown before readers are transferred to the site. Google also reserves the right to add an adult tag to Blogger blogs if it feels the description is appropriate.

The acceptable use policy link currently redirects users to a posted message which reads:

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.

As long as bloggers have correctly identified their adult blogs they need take no further action, the message adds.

Google plans to enable people to flag revenge porn so that it can be excluded from its internet searches in future.

Amit Singhal, a senior vice-president, announced in a post on the Google public policy blog on Friday that the company would soon issue online forms through which members of the public will be able to request that revenge porn content involving them no longer show up in Google searches.

Links to such images will not be included in Google search results on that person, though images will remain online.

The step is a major shift for the leading search engine, which normally resists attempts at censorship on internet content showing up in searches. But Google decided to make an exception regarding the unauthorised sharing of nude photos, images often posted by ex-spouses or partners or extortionists demanding money to take down such pictures, all without the consent of the people shown.

It is not clear if Google will implement an appeals procedure for the inevitable false claims that will be generated.

Google has been getting more aggressive about redirecting users from Google.com to the the national versions of the sites.

According to a person close to Google, this move to redirect users is part of the company's attempts to persuade judges and lawmakers that applying any censorship orders on a national level is sufficient. This person, who spoke on condition of anonymity, suggested the company is hoping to demonstrate that, in countries like France and Germany, relatively few people now go to Google.com in the first place -- which obviates the need for broader orders.

Given the recent decree in France, however, this strategy appears to be coming up short. The fallback strategy, then, is to employ a more technical solution: Using IP addresses (which reveal a person's location) to censor Google.com on a country-by-country basis. This would entail Google configuring its search results to detect that a person is in France -- and blocking any offending search results accordingly on Google.com -- while at the same time displaying the missing results to Google.com visitors in Norway, the United States, and elsewhere.

Google is not employing such measures yet, but comments by the company's top lawyer, David Drummond, suggest it is willing and able to do so.

Indonesia's Ministry of Communications and Informatics spokesperson Ismail Cawidu told Reuters that in March, the Ministry aims to issue a new law to streaming and messaging providers, as well as social media websites. He cited national interests on taxes as well as controlling terrorism and pornography-related content as the main reasons for the proposal. He added:

If they do not comply, Indonesia will reduce their bandwidth or block them entirely..

Meanwhile, Minister of Communication and Informatics Rudiantara said that the Ministry estimated that the country's digital advertising sector was worth about US$800 million in 2015, but the business was left untaxed because of loopholes in regulations. He noted:

Google has an office in Indonesia, but digital age transactions do not go through that office. That is what we're looking to straighten out.