Boundaries

Visitors who only read blogs will not have seen the following background alert that has recently been appearing on the dashboards of blog creators:-

Updates to the Blogger Content Policy
We are making some changes to our policies, effective December 16, 2026. To see how these changes may affect you, please find more information in the Blogger Content Policy.

I thought that it was about time that I investigated what this is all about. What changes are coming and how will they impact on everyday blogging?

As far as I can make it out, it's all about tightening the system up and ensuring that Blogger is not used maliciously or for unsavoury purposes. It appears that Blogger has seventeen key guidelines that bloggers are meant to follow. Now it seems that these principles will be given more weight and there will be better enforcement. I copied and pasted the guidelines for your interest:-

1. Absolute zero-tolerance policy; results in immediate removal, account termination, and reporting to law enforcement.
2. Violence & Gore: Explicitly prohibits graphic depictions of violence, gore, or encouragement of self-harm.
3. Violent Organizations: Content promoting, supporting, or representing terrorist groups, hate organizations, or violent extremist groups is banned.
4. Harassment, Bullying, & Threats: Direct personal attacks, systematic harassment, and threats of violence against individuals are strictly forbidden.
5. Hate Speech: Content that promotes violence or incites hatred against individuals or groups based on race, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, or gender identity is prohibited.
6. Impersonation: Deceiving users by pretending to be another person, official entity, or organization is a violation.
7. Personal & Confidential Information: Disseminating private details (e.g., medical records, social security numbers, home addresses) without explicit consent—commonly known as doxxing—is restricted.
8. Non-Consensual Explicit Imagery: Sharing intimate, explicit, or sexually suggestive photos or videos of someone without their clear, written consent is illegal and banned.
9. Adult Content Restrictions: While explicit or adult content is permitted on Blogger, it must be properly marked as "Adult" in the settings to trigger an interstitial warning page. Missing labels will be force-applied or result in blog removal.
10. Deceptive Practices, Fraud, & Scams: Fake reviews, romance scams, investment fraud, or "get-rich-quick" schemes designed to defraud users are prohibited.
11. Phishing: Operating blogs that mimic authentic login screens or banking pages to steal credentials or personal data is banned.
12. Malware & Viruses: Distributing harmful code, malicious scripts, ransomware, or linking directly to malware-hosting hubs is entirely prohibited.
13. Spam: Automated content generation, link-stuffing, scraped text, or utilizing blogs purely to funnel traffic to affiliate networks or external search loops is penalized.
14. Regulated Goods: Operating a storefront or facilitating transactions for illegal or strictly regulated items (e.g., firearms, prescription drugs without a license, alcohol, tobacco) is banned.
15. Misleading Civic or Health Content: Intentionally spreading demonstrably false and harmful medical claims (e.g., dangerous alternative cures) or civic manipulation data (e.g., false voting timelines) is restricted.
16. Unauthorized Images of Minors: To protect children online, sharing imagery of individuals under 18 without parental consent is actively restricted.
17. Copyright Infringement: Stealing intellectual property, providing unauthorized links to copyrighted media streams, or plagiarizing material violates DMCA parameters and will cause post or blog takedowns.

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On the face of it, it might seem that what will be happening from December 16th onwards is all for the good, making Blogworld safer and happier. However, I worry about the policing. I assume that this will be undertaken by AI bots and at the margins will any humans be available to settle differences and misunderstandings? Several of the seventeen guidelines seem very much open to interpretation. It's not all as clear-cut as Blogger implies.

I always think about Andrew in Melbourne.  It is a few years ago now but there he was merrily blogging away as he had done for the previous eighteen years and then suddenly Blogger destroyed his blog and made the content irretrievable. All those hours, all of those ups and downs, all of those photographs - the record of his life gone up in a puff of smoke and why? What for? What had he done wrong?

To add insult to injury, there was no one at Google Blogger he could ask, no helpdesk, no e-mail address or phone number.  Perhaps is was all just a hiccup, a robotic glitch but the upshot of it was that Andrew lost his blog and struggled to get started again. I really felt for him.

And it worries me now that if Blogger plans to become more stringent about content - probably with the assistance of AI checking - will other blogs be wrongly deleted without recourse to justice or appeals that will be properly  taken on board?

I sincerely hope that I am wrong but I vaguely  detect  the smell of rats.