The other day I saw the notice that Google was banning all explicit adult content from blogger.
Outside of the irony of remembering when the post’s author (Violet Blue) had her content deleted from Boing Boing back in 2008, she’s actually pretty uniquely qualified to talk about the difference between censorship and removal. For the record I think that it’s a pretty crappy thing to do and I don’t like it. But as I often say, my beliefs are pretty straight forward:
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it. ~ Voltaire
Is It Censorship?
Let’s be clear on this. The change to Blogger’s Adult Content Policy is pretty straightforward.
Starting March 23, 2015, you won’t be able to publicly share images and video that are sexually explicit or show graphic nudity on Blogger.
Yes, this is a change to their Terms of Service (which they reserve the right to do at any time), but is it censorship for them to say “We don’t want hard core stuff on our servers”? That’s like saying a country music station on the radio is censoring heavy metal. No, they just don’t want to have it on their servers. Google’s said they don’t want that. They don’t want to do business or make money off of things they find morally distasteful.
Frankly I think the whole planet’s hang ups about sex are laughable. The majority of adults I know have consensual sex and like it. I do know a couple asexuals, and I know people who have reasons why they hate sex. I also know people who hate peanuts. It’s about the same thing for some of them (one has a traumatic peanut in his ear story that resulted in surgery and hearing loss). Sex is normal. It’s what everyone does and no one talks about (thank you George Carlin). So grown ups wanting to Google for information about the sex they want to have? There’s nothing wrong with that! There’s nothing wrong with kids looking that stuff up too. We used to hide in the back of libraries, looking things up when we didn’t feel comfortable asking our parents.
The argument that they’re not ‘censoring’ they’re just enforcing their guidelines falls flat when you remember that the definition of censorship is defined as acting as a censor. So yes, I think Google’s censoring, but in this instance they’re within their right to do so. That doesn’t mean I think it’s right, but I’ll support their legal rights.
Is It Discrimination?
One of the sites hit up by this is a site where porn stars play D&D. I kinda like that site. It amuses me to no end and is how I learned about this change. They had just posted about how they’re leaving the escapist. They were talking about discrimination and general asshattery and non-inclusiveness. Their site may be punted off of Google’s Blogger service soon for being ‘adult’ by nature.
I’m actually not sure about that. But I really have no idea why their site is considered ‘adult’ in the first place. I’ve never read anything about sex there except this:
I’m Zak, I live in Los Angeles. Most of the people I know here are women I know from being a porn “actor”–so they’re porn stars and strippers. So that’s who I play Dungeons & Dragons with.
First of all, I want to play with them because the game looks fun, but mostly I don’t recall ever reading adult or explicit content there. So of course I started thinking about how they could be making it harder for people to read about things that help them understand themselves. A lot of people sort out what they’re interested in by quietly reading stories about other people who had similar issues and thoughts and feelings. While Google’s only said they’re punting “sexually explicit” content, that’s a really slippery road.
I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [“hard-core pornography”], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that.
That quote is from United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, used to describe his threshold test for obscenity in Jacobellis v. Ohio in 1964 (the film being Louis Malle’s The Lovers). We’re allowing, and trusting, Google to define what is and is not explicit. And this means that it becomes a case by case value judgement. Are two women kissing ‘explicit’? It gets messy really fast.
Is It What I Expected?
Yes. I totally expected this.
Google to punt all explicit blogs? Haaaaaaaaave you met WordPress?
I meant Self Hosted WordPress, James. Yes, WordPress.com also restricts and censors your content. It’s their playground. I will, till my dying day, support their right to do this. They don’t want to do business like that, fine. I wouldn’t argue the French restaurant that servers pomme frites needs to serve a hamburger or some chutney. That’s their business choice and it just means I can’t use them.
But it brings up the main reason why I still self-host.
As someone who self-hosts, I still have to be aware of the Terms of Use for my webhost, but generally that provides me a lot more freedom. I have a legal contract and a leg to stand on. As long as I don’t violate that, I’m good to go.
And of course I work for a company who would host anything, as long as it’s legal.
Comments
7 responses to “Why I (Still) SelfHost”
I wrote paragraphs in a comment, then remembered my rule — if a comment is more than two paragraphs, just write a post. So I’ll write a post. But! I did want to note that WordPress.com’s user guidelines list the things that aren’t allowed on the service, including:
So we’re not necessarily better than Google/Blogger. I don’t know where the TOS squad draws the line. I know it’s not “two girls kissing.” And I know there’s a “mature” filter that just removes a site with explicit content from the tag listings. But what counts as sexually explicit to a degree that they call it porn and suspend the site? No idea, but I will investigate!
@Jen Mylo: It’s that split decision in my head you know? I support your right to censor at your company, but it does make me know I need to ask before blindly trusting. I do wonder if wpcom would block dndwithpornstars, though. I don’t particularly think their content is mature any more than my blog (they may curse less…) but they do have ‘porn’ in the title. Which has always made me wonder why Blogger tagged it adult…
Maybe because D&D is a kids game and they’re worried about porn + games?
Firstly…
I am in agreement with you! Heck, one of my distant relatives warned that “The British are coming” – it’s in my blood! LOL
I first read of Google’s (and Reddit’s) policy change coincidently in my local paper this morning. Imagine my surprise to open my email and find you posting about the same!
However, I have not read (at this point) any of Google’s announcement first-hand. That being said…
In your post, you say…
“…you won’t be able to publicly share…” and “No, they just don’t want to have it on their servers.”
In the article I read…
If that is accurate, then it sounds like Google won’t be “removing” graphic content from their servers; they will be restricting its visibility to those who explicitly opt in to a private Blogger site.
And I’m sure that if there will be “private, invitation-only, explicit-content” Blogger sites on the Google servers, Google will be displaying ads and collecting revenue.
Is is censorship? Yep… but as you say within their rights. It’s their playground.
@Ken Dawes: Wait seriously? You’re related to William Dawes?
Perhaps I should say “Google doesn’t want to make it EASY for you to get to porn” rather than they don’t want it. But I would not be surprised to hear that next it’s porn’s gotta go.
Agreed!
Yeah… I am. We always used to refer to him as “Uncle Will” but in actuality he was a cousin.
Ken
Today you can watch in News about war, how people with weapons destroy others with different ideas, but sex and nudity is somehow taboo and restricted ❓
So this censorship is everywhere, not only on web.
@Peter Cralen: Yes, but that’s not the same.
I don’t have a ToS or contract with TV or movies. They create a thing, I pay to consume it. Here I am creating a thing, paying to have it be consumable, and after the fact they are censoring it. The change of terms to say “You can make porn, but not house it here unless it’s behind closed doors” is the issue.
And yes, I think it’s stupid to allow us to watch death but not sex. Americans don’t generally understand how nudity can be not sexual :/