MONTE VISTA, Calif. – Massive Tech Co., owner of the largely irrelevant, second-banana blogging platform Pflogger, announced a change in its content policy this week, effectively prohibiting blogs containing pornographic content.
In an email sent to Pflogger users who mostly had forgotten about their adult Pflogger blogs (seeing as the platform last year disallowed publication of any manner of potentially revenue-generating links), Pflogger explained the changes to its content policy.
“Dear Pflogger user,” the email begins. “This is a little awkward, so bear with us for a minute here. Remember a while back when we declared Pflogger to be a staunch supporter of the First Amendment and proudly trumpeted our belief that censoring pornographic content on the platform would be contrary to a service that bases itself on freedom of expression? Well, it looks like we spoke too soon, because y’all need get up outta here, basically.”
The email gives operators of existing adult Pflogger blogs three options, none of which offer adult Pflogger users any particular reason to go back to updating the properties they pretty much abandoned last summer.
“Here’s the deal,” the email continues, “On March 23, the effective date of this policy, we’re going to start sweeping your filthy shit under the Pflogger rug while technically not deleting any of your content, so we can at least pretend not to be total assholes. Before then, you have three choices:
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For those who choose to suck it and beat feet, Pflogger has charitably made it relatively easy for adult blog owners to archive their content in XML files, enabling a hypothetically smooth transition to another blogging platform — ideally one that permits adult content.
Reactions from operators of adult Pflogger blogs varied wildly, with some terming Pflogger’s actions unconscionable corporate censorship, while others took the policy change in stride.
“Pflogger’s content policy change is an absolute travesty and manifest injustice,” wrote sex-positive tech blogger Magenta Azure. “This horrific abandonment of principle on Pflogger’s part is a clear violation of the First Amendment, the Magna Carta, and the Bro Code, and represents nothing less than a direct, malicious attack on the sexual freedoms of all humanity. The circumstances demand a full-scale civil rights investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and eventually, the appointment of a special prosecutor and establishment of a new cabinet-level position for a Freedom of Sexual-Expression Czar.”
Adult Pflogger blog operator Phredhead69 was somewhat more measured in his response, tweeting “no shit i still have blogs on pflogger? lol!” along with a screenshot of the email announcing the policy change.
“dont matter,” Phredhead69 subsequently tweeted. “i use wordpress on own domains now anway. who still use pfluger anyhow? that shit BEEN dead, yo”
In an exclusive phone interview with YNOT, Kenneth Anderson, Adjunct Associate Alternative Professor of Internet Policy at the University of Central Nevada’s Center for Law, Technology and Stuff, said while he is “personally deeply troubled” by Pflogger’s new policy, “Massive Tech Co. probably is acting within its rights in making this policy change.
“It’s important to remember the First Amendment protects the free speech rights of publishers and internet service providers too, not just webmasters posting old promotional content from an adult affiliate program that probably doesn’t exist anymore,” Anderson said. “At the same time, Pflogger’s actions have a capricious and arbitrary feel to them – two words I use a lot, but I’m not entirely sure what they mean. Hopefully they make sense in this context, otherwise everybody is going to know I’m a pseudointellectual fraud. Uh … we are off the record here, right?”
Adult industry attorney Gregory Walter McDazzaberger concurred with Anderson, saying “whether we like the policy or not, Pflogger has every right to establish and change any policy it likes, within reason.
“You can also understand why a major mainstream company like Massive Tech Co. would want to distance itself from controversial subject matter like pornography,” McDazzaberger said. “It’s one thing for your search platform to facilitate access to an unlimited supply of full-length pirated porn movies on popular, malware-infested adult tube sites, and quite another for your blogging platform to permit properly-labeled adult Pflogger blogs to receive literally dozens of annual hits without posting any links to commercial adult sites.
“Any questions you have which are more specific will require you to become a client,” McDazzaberger added. “This necessitates the payment of a small initial retainer, naturally — just enough to assure the duration of this interview is completely covered. $4,000 should suffice.”
Representatives of Pflogger and Massive Tech Co. declined to comment for this report, because they’re just a bunch of pussies.
