Blogger content policy
Blogger is a service for self-expression and communication. We believe that Blogger increases the availability of information, encourages healthy debate and makes possible new connections between people. It is our belief that censoring this content is contrary to a service that bases itself on freedom of expression.
However, in order to uphold these values, we need to curb abuse that threatens our ability to provide this service and the freedom of expression that it encourages. As a result, there are some boundaries on the type of content that can be hosted with Blogger. The boundaries that we've defined are those that both comply with legal requirements and that serve to enhance the service as a whole.
We rely on blog readers to report content that they find inconsistent with Blogger's community guidelines. If you encounter a post that you believe violates community guidelines, please report it using the 'Report' link located in the navigation of most blogs. If you are unable to find the link on the blog, you can still report suspected violations here.
Our community guidelines play an important role in keeping the open web a welcoming place to create. Please respect these guidelines. We may update our policies from time to time, so please check back here. Note that when applying the policies below, we may make exceptions based on artistic, educational, documentary or scientific considerations or where there are other substantial benefits to the public from not taking action on the content.
We do allow adult content on Blogger, including images or videos that contain nudity or sexual activity. If your blog contains adult content, please mark it as 'adult' in your Blogger settings. We may also mark blogs with adult content where the owners have not. All blogs marked as 'adult' will be placed behind an 'adult content' warning interstitial. If your blog has a warning interstitial, please do not attempt to circumvent or disable the interstitial – it is for everyone’s protection.
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 that contain ads for or links to commercial porn sites.
- We do not allow illegal sexual content, including image, video or textual content that depicts or encourages rape, incest, bestiality or necrophilia.
- Do not post or distribute private nude, sexually explicit or non-explicit intimate and sexual images or videos without the subject’s consent. If someone has posted a private nude, sexually explicit or non-explicit intimate and sexual image or video of you, please report it to us here.
Do not create, upload or distribute content that exploits or abuses children. This includes all child sexual abuse materials. To report content on a Google product that may exploit a child, click Report abuse. If you find content elsewhere on the Internet, please contact the appropriate agency in your country directly.
More broadly, Google prohibits the use of our products to endanger children. This includes but is not limited to predatory behaviour towards children such as:
- ‘Child grooming’ (for example, befriending a child online to facilitate, either online or offline, sexual contact and/or exchanging sexual imagery with that child);
- ‘Sextortion’ (for example, threatening or blackmailing a child by using real or alleged access to a child’s intimate images);
- Sexualisation of a minor (for example, imagery that depicts, encourages or promotes the sexual abuse of children or the portrayal of children in a manner that could result in the sexual exploitation of children); and
- Trafficking of a child (for example, advertising or solicitation of a child for commercial sexual exploitation).
We will remove such content and take appropriate action, which may include reporting to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, limiting access to product features and disabling accounts. If you believe a child is in danger of or has been subject to abuse, exploitation or trafficking, contact the police immediately.
Do not use this product to engage in illegal activities or to promote activities, goods, services or information that cause serious and immediate harm to people or animals. While we permit general information for educational, documentary, scientific or artistic purposes about this content, we draw the line when the content directly facilitates harm or encourages illegal activity. We will take appropriate action if we are notified of unlawful activities, which may include reporting you to the relevant authorities.
Do not harass, bully or threaten others. We also don’t allow this product to be used to engage or incite others in these activities. This includes singling someone out for malicious abuse, threatening someone with serious harm, sexualising someone in an unwanted way, exposing private information of someone else that could be used to carry out threats, disparaging or belittling targets of violence or tragedy, inciting others to carry out these activities or harassing someone in other ways. Keep in mind that online harassment is illegal in many places and can have serious offline consequences for both the harasser and the target. We may take appropriate action if we are notified of threats of harm or other dangerous situations, which may include reporting you to the relevant authorities.
Do not engage in hate speech. Hate speech is content that promotes or condones violence against, or has the primary purpose of inciting hatred against, an individual or group on the basis of their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or any other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalisation.
Do not impersonate a person or organisation or misrepresent yourself. This includes impersonating any person or organisations that you don’t represent or providing misleading information about a user/site’s identity, qualifications, ownership, purpose, products, services or business.
This also includes content or accounts misrepresenting or concealing their ownership or primary purpose such as misrepresenting or intentionally concealing your country of origin or other material details about yourself when directing content about politics, social issues or matters of public concern to users in a country other than your own. We do allow parody, satire and the use of pseudonyms or pen names – just avoid content that is likely to mislead your audience about your true identity.
Do not transmit malware or any content that harms or interferes with the operation of the networks, servers end user devices or other infrastructure. This includes the direct hosting, embedding or transmission of malware, viruses, destructive code or other harmful or unwanted software or similar content. This also includes content that transmits viruses, causes pop-ups, attempts to install software without the user’s consent or otherwise impacts users with malicious code. See our Safe Browsing policies for more information.
Do not distribute content that deceives, misleads or confuses users. This includes:
Misleading content related to civic and democratic processes: content that is demonstrably false and could significantly undermine participation or trust in civic or democratic processes. This includes information about public voting procedures, political candidate eligibility based on age/place of birth, election results or census participation that contradicts official government records. It also includes incorrect claims that a political figure or government official has died, has been involved in an accident or is suffering from a sudden serious illness.
Misleading content related to harmful conspiracy theories: content that promotes or lends credibility to beliefs that individuals or groups are systematically committing acts that cause widespread harm. This content is contradicted by substantial evidence and has resulted in or incites violence.
Misleading content related to harmful health practices: misleading health or medical content that promotes or encourages others to engage in practices that may lead to serious physical or emotional harm to individuals or serious public health harm.
Manipulated media: media that has been technically manipulated or doctored in a way that misleads users and may pose a serious risk of egregious harm.
Misleading content may be allowed in an educational, documentary, scientific or artistic context, but please be mindful to provide enough information to help people understand this context. In some cases, no amount of context will allow this content to remain on our platforms.
Do not store or distribute private nude, sexually explicit or non-explicit intimate and sexual images or videos without the subject's consent. If someone has sent a private nude, sexually explicit or non-explicit intimate and sexual image or video of you, please report it to us here.
Do not store or distribute other people’s personal or confidential information without authorisation. This includes sensitive information, such as UK National Insurance numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, images of signatures and personal health documents. In most cases where this information is broadly available elsewhere on the Internet or in public records, like national ID numbers listed on a government website, we generally don’t process enforcement actions.
Do not use this product for phishing. This includes soliciting or collecting sensitive data such as passwords, financial details and National Insurance numbers.
Do not sell, advertise or facilitate the sale of regulated goods and services. Regulated goods and services include alcohol, gambling, pharmaceuticals, unapproved supplements, tobacco, fireworks, weapons or health/medical devices.
Do not spam. This may include unwanted promotional or commercial content, unwanted content that is created by an automated program, unwanted repetitive content, nonsensical content or anything that appears to be a mass solicitation.
Known violent non-state organisations and movements are not permitted to use this product for any purpose. Do not distribute content that facilitates or promotes the activities of these groups, such as recruiting, coordinating online or offline activities, sharing manuals or other materials that could facilitate harm, promoting ideologies of violent non-state organisations, promoting terrorist acts, inciting violence or celebrating attacks by violent non-state organisations. Depending upon the content, we may also take action against the user. Content related to violent non-state organisations may be allowed in an educational, documentary, scientific or artistic context, but please be mindful to provide enough information to help people understand the context.
Do not store or distribute images of minors without explicit consent from the child's parent, guardian or legal representative. If someone has stored or distributed an image of a minor without necessary consent, please report it to us.
Do not store or distribute violent or gory content involving real-life people or animals that’s primarily intended to be shocking, sensational or gratuitous. This includes ultra-graphic material, such as dismemberment or close-up footage of mutilated corpses, and graphic material, such as content containing significant amounts of blood. Content may be allowed in an educational, documentary, scientific or artistic context, but please be mindful to provide enough information to help people understand the context. In some cases, content may be so violent or shocking that no amount of context will allow that content to remain on our platforms. Lastly, don't encourage others to commit specific acts of violence.
It is our policy to respond to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement. More information about our copyright procedures can be found here. Also, please don't provide links to sites where your readers can obtain unauthorised downloads of other people's content.
Please report suspected violations of community guidelines to us using the 'Report' link located in the navigation of most blogs or by clicking here.
When something is reported, it's not automatically removed. Reported content is reviewed by our team to verify that it violates those community guidelines. If the blog does not violate our guidelines, we will not take any action against the blog or blog owner. If we find that a blog does violate our community guidelines, we take one or more of the following actions based on the severity of the violation:
- Put the blog or post behind a sensitive content warning interstitial
- Unpublish the post, making it only available to the blog author
- Delete the offending content, post or blog
- Disable the author's access to their Blogger account
- Disable the author's access to their Google Account
- Report the user to law enforcement
We may also take any of the above actions if we find that a user has created multiple blogs engaging in repeated abusive behaviour. If you have had a blog disabled, do not create a replacement blog that engages in similar activity. Unless noted otherwise, all restrictive actions are global and permanent.
If your content or account was actioned against, you will receive a notification about the type of enforcement and the reasoning for the enforcement action. The notification will also contain information about steps that you can take to appeal our decision if you believe it was a mistake. You can submit an appeal by clicking 'appeal' or 'request review'. If your appeal is approved, we'll notify you and take appropriate action to reverse our prior decision.
Appeals may not be available in all circumstances (e.g. certain court ordered removals). You should receive more information about your appeals options in the notification that we send to you about your content or account.
If you're covered by the European Union's Digital Services Act ('DSA'), the option to refer your complaint to a certified out-of-court dispute settlement body may also be available to you. Learn more about the European Union's DSA. If you have legal questions or wish to examine other remedies that may be available to you, including the option of referring this matter to a court, you may wish to speak to your own lawyer.
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