Business
Google decision comes under fire from internet users
Madrid, Feb 26
The Internet Users
Associations has condemned Google's decision to forbid users of its
Blogger platform to share images and videos of "explicitly" sexual
content as an attack on freedom of expression.
Starting March 23,
users of the Blogger platform cannot share images and videos of
"explicitly" sexual content, although Google will allow naked pictures
if these are published for the public benefit, for example in artistic,
educational, documentary or scientific contexts.
The Internet
Users Associations Wednesday, describing the decision as a form of
"censorship" and an attack on freedom of expression, strongly criticised
the change in Google's privacy policy.
According to this new
rule, users who have a blog with pornographic material will
automatically see it made private, starting March 23, Google noted on
its “support†page.
Users will not lose their information, nor
will it be removed, but access to the banned material will be limited
only to the page's administrator and certain users they share the
content with.
In other words, they will no longer be public.
In
the case of newly-created blogs, specifically those that are started
after March 23, Google's new terms of privacy allow the company to
directly remove postings if they contain porn, or take other actions if
they include explicit sexual content or unjustified nudity.
President
of the Internet Users Associations, Victor Domingo, explained to
Spanish news agency Efe Wednesday that not all nudity necessarily
constitutes pornography. He lamented that many bloggers will have to
shut down their blogs because they will not be able to remain public.