While I am in the “appeal” process with Google, my hopes are not high that I will get access to my old account. In doing some research I found that Google is picking on Gay Bloggers. The issue appears to be nudity. When I opened my 2nd blog that did have nudity and men in sexual acts I kind of suspected that I would risk being shutdown. I thought about opening it as a separate blog and now wish that I would have. Then I think I would have a better idea as to what happened.
Google disables access but you will NEVER know why it happened. Much of this activity I am to understand is done by Robots and not humans. In fact I found a phone number for Google and called it. I tried to talk with a human but was told that they do not offer live customer support at this time. Instead I was redirected to a web page. You can easily wind up chasing your tail going through web pages, forms and forums.
My understanding is that you complete the form that Google provides when your disabled and want to appeal. You then should post in the Google Help Forum telling people you got shutdown and ask for help. A middle man will then relay your request to a Google Employee. Then the middle man gets back to you after they hear back from the Google Employee and you either get or do not get your access back. They don’t elaborate as to why things happened it is just that way. There isn’t such a thing as a 2nd or 3rd appeal but people have tried.
In short there is a ton of road blocks in place and no one is in any hurry to get you a response. So to guard against this make sure that you have your Blogger theme & content backed up on a regular basis. Better yet if your really paranoid don’t post nude photos at all.
While I understand Google is a free service and that said service is “at will” meaning they can terminate your account with or without notice, they are also trying to take over the world, much like a Microsoft. They give you free e-mail, free cloud storage, programs like Google Docs, They branched into social networking with Google +. They want you to use their service BUT if you offend them or do something they don’t like they just pull the plug. Now how in the world do they expect people to trust them? To my knowledge this hasn’t made it to main stream media and I honestly doubt it will. I mean it is just something that affects the gays and it’s porn so why put it in the lime light.
I understand some of Google’s point but at the same time, under the Constitution I am entitled to Free Speech. I should be able to say what I want and post photos of what I want. I agree with warning people ahead of time that they are about to enter an Adult site. However, if you click past the warning then you shouldn’t be offended at what you see. I mean especially when the words homo and sex are in the title and URL of the blog.
Since I had a gut feeling things would go south I checked on what Google’s policy is regarding Nudity. Here’s what I found.
Adult Content: We do allow adult content on Blogger, including images or videos that contain nudity or sexual activity. But, please mark your blog as 'adult' in your Blogger settings. Otherwise, we may put it behind a 'mature content' interstitial.
There are some exceptions to our adult content policy:
- Do not use Blogger as a way to make money on adult content. For example, don't create blogs where a significant percentage of the content is ads or links to commercial porn sites.
- No incest or bestiality content: We do not allow image, video or text content that depicts or encourages incest or bestiality.
Child safety: We have a zero tolerance policy towards content that exploits children. Some examples of this include:
- Child pornography: We will terminate the accounts of any user we find publishing or distributing child pornography. We will also report that user to law enforcement.
- Pedophilia: We do not allow content that encourages or promotes sexual attraction towards children. For example, do not create blogs with galleries of images of children where the collection of images or text accompanying the images is sexually suggestive.
Hate Speech: We want you to use Blogger to express your opinions, even very controversial ones. But, don't cross the line by publishing hate speech. By this, we mean content that promotes hate or violence towards groups based on race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity. For example, don't write a blog saying that members of Race X are criminals or advocating violence against followers of Religion Y.
Crude Content: Don't post content just to be shocking or graphic. For example, collections of close-up images of gunshot wounds or accident scenes without additional context or commentary would violate this policy.
Violence: Don't threaten other people on your blog. For example, don't post death threats against another person or group of people and don't post content encouraging your readers to take violent action against another person or group of people.
Now on my 2nd blog, I did have a content warning up. I figured that since they permit nudity it wouldn’t be a problem. I’m no pedophile and totally support protecting children. I mean your only a kid once. You will be an adult for a very long time.
Realize that all of this is supposition on my part. It would be great if Google or their robots would communicate as to why they are disabling or taking away access from people.
I found the Counter of Shame and a list of Gay Blogs that have been closed. A link to the page and the counter appear below.
http://googlebloggerclosesgayblogs.blogspot.com/
As well the Counter of Shame appears in my sidebar. If I do regain access to my old sites, I am tempted to just put in an entry directing folks here. Let me know what you would like to see happen if I get my access back.
Thanks for stopping by. Talk with you peeps later.