You Can't Post Racy Stuff Here Anymore

What do you do when the website trying to have a part in every aspect of your life decides that it doesn’t like a certain part of it? That’s the dilemma in which many Blogger users that host adult content are finding themselves after Blogger recently changed its policy on adult content.

According to the changes, by March 23, 2015, Blogger, the hosting platform Google bought in 2003, will no longer allow users to publicly share “images and videos that are sexually explicit or show graphic nudity.” That means that by the March date, websites must either remove all their adult content or go private in order to remain on Blogger — which totally defeats the purpose of having an adult content blog. If a blog is private, that means that blog owners will have to grant individual users access to their sites; after guests are invited, they can access the sites through their permitted Google account or via a link that expires after 30 days. This new policy is a heavy blow to blogs featuring adult content.

One forum poster, claiming to be Derren Grathy, the writer and webmaster of the blog Impregnation Erotica, pointed out the problem with this, stating:

"We cannot possibly invite hundreds of thousands of people one by one. With no public access, our sites will wither from inattention and lack of new insight and comment. What will be left in mere months will be a collection of dead domains, dessicated [sic] corpses of once vibrant and wholesome adult communities laid waste by this policy decision."

The anonymous sex blogger behind Girl on the Net also raised an interesting point about this ordeal. Yes, Blogger isn't obligated to uphold the free speech rights of its users, and as long as people agree to the terms of services, they have to follow the rules if they want to use the platform. But, Girl on the Net writes, what happens when the tools which have become so essential to so many of our lives start limiting what we're allowed to post — and to see?

At the very least, her concerns are something to think about. Also worth considering is the benefit of self-hosted websites. There are rumors that Wordpress.com, another (mostly) free blogging platform might soon follow suit and start limiting adult content. One of my favorite bloggers, Awesomely Luvvie, wrote about a popular Nigerian blog that was removed from Blogger last October. One of her tips for being able to protect your content online is to own your own domain and self-host your blog.

In fact, Molly Moore, a tech and sex blogger, posted tips on how to move Blogger websites onto a self-hosted spaces when Blogger changed its policy on the monetization of adult content back in 2013. NSFW blogs have been being limited for a few years, so maybe now is the time for these websites to migrate off the platform.

Image: Getty Images (2)