Google App Engine Program Policies

[Peter K]

Program policies list as one of the prohibited content as:

Pornographic, obscene or excessively profane content;

Is there a source at Google we can ask for a clarification before
launching our app as to whether the content will be considered
prohibited?

We are looking to launch an "Adult" personals listing site and we
would like to get specific clarification from Google. Would people
posting nude photographs of themselves be considered prohibited. Is
there a measurable bar we can test against.

If some one posts a link to their Webpicasa album which contains
nudity and we show that link will that violate the program policies ?

[Nick Johnson (Google)]

Hi Peter,

Unfortunately, 'adult' sites are in contravention of the prohibition on pornographic content, and as such are not allowed on App Engine.

-Nick Johnson

--
Nick Johnson, Developer Programs Engineer, App Engine
Google Ireland Ltd. :: Registered in Dublin, Ireland, Registration Number: 368047

[dimi]

Hi Nick (or someone else @Google),

The above reply is very clear for full nude content but would you say that men with nude torsos is adult content too?

And, what about Peter's question about linking to other sites hosting that nude content? 

Is it allowed to use the GAE to store links to adult pornographic images and embed these on a GAE webpage in the <img scr="http://otherdomein.com/image.png"/> ?

Thank you for your clear response!

Dimitri

[Brandon Wirtz]

I’m not a Google Employee, but when in doubt I would defer to the Adsense policy guidelines.  That isn’t to say GAE aligns perfectly, but if you follow those guidelines you won’t end up in conflict.

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[Ikai Lan (Google)]

I'm not lawyer, and I'm not the one who reviews content - just a warning. I use the "I'll know it when I see it" philosophy. 

If you are hosting pictures from men playing beach volleyball, that is probably okay. Use your judgment. If you are really unclear, you should speak to a lawyer.

Ikai Lan 
Developer Programs Engineer, Google App Engine

Blog: http://googleappengine.blogspot.com 

Twitter: http://twitter.com/app_engine

Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/appengine

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[Jeff Schnitzer]

I'd take this a step further. As someone who as worked in the porn
biz, I can tell you that the threat of a service provider getting
squeamish and yanking service is very real. Considering the
difficulty of switching to a different platform, this isn't something
you should risk - if you think you might be anywhere near the grey
zone of Google's policy limitations, avoid Appengine. Even if you're
on the right side of the line today, all it takes is one new executive
with a stick up their ass to change the policy underneath you without
warning.

This has happened in the past with several major services (paypal and
akamai are notable) and myriad minor ones.

Even Facebook has become irritatingly prudish. They recently banned
all content related to sexuality - including pages without any X rated
content (ie, corporate pages for businesses in the porn biz). They
even removed the community pages (basically, the stolen wikipedia
content) for subjects like BDSM. This affected my (totally non-porny)
dating site because of the hundreds of things that users can
like/dislike (skiing, science fiction movies, veganism, celibacy, big
families, etc) one of them was BDSM.

The collateral damage for this kind of asshattery extends way beyond
the porn biz - if you're *anywhere* near the subject, you need to
architect defensively.

Jeff

[dimi]

Hi Jeff, it's not something I'm happy to hear.. but your approach does seem fair.

I really don't like policies which are not clear about what's allowed and what isn't.

I'm sorry Ikai, but if I need to consult a lawyer, who is not working for Google, I'll never be sure if I play by those dubious rules.

If Google likes to be prude (an other way of calling it is careful - there are really sick people out there), I don't mind. 

But be very clear in your policy or don't have a policy at all.

I am setting up a dating site.  

Some people prefer to show their ass in stead of their face and who am I to judge that?

I have been experimenting with the GAE for 9 months and I really like it.

It totally suits my needs... but I did kinda wished it would allow adult content.

It would be nice to put my plan on paper and to make an individual deal with Google?

If something like that is possible, please contact me.

Thnx for your replies guys!

[Ikai Lan (Google)]

Dimi,

You are responsible for the content in your application. If you're willing to put a deal to paper, doesn't that signal a need to speak to a lawyer anyway?

Anyway, for what it is worth, I agree with your feelings about clear statements. However, from a pragmatic perspective, this just isn't the way stuff works. There was some talk about setting up more clear guidelines.

Based on your description, however, I suspect you will be okay. There are several dating services that already operate on App Engine without policy issues. 

Ikai Lan 
Developer Programs Engineer, Google App Engine

Blog: http://googleappengine.blogspot.com 

Twitter: http://twitter.com/app_engine

Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/appengine

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[dimi]

Ikai,

Thanks for your answer.

I do understand that I am responsable for all the content in my app. I am consulting a lawyer anyway about protecting the users privacy etc.

The deal would be setting up guidelines about what is acceptable and what is not.

For example: I personally won't allow nudity in someones profile picture (except a torso). But if you could send private messages to someone, and enclose a private picture with that,... I couldn't care less :) - question is: does Google care, because after all.. you host and distribute the image.

About policies: if we know what you want to achieve with the policy, it would be easier to apply it to our designplans.

After thinking about it for a couple of hours, I do realise that it isn't how stuff work and the policy should indeed be very general.

Nonetheless I do believe that there are better ways to communicate about it to your current and future customers.

I did enjoy reading your comments on https://groups.google.com/d/topic/google-appengine/_zR85Q2Nn7g/discussion

Glad you don't take an app down, without contacting the owner (so he can explain and/or take action).

Dimitri.

[Jeff Schnitzer]

On Fri, Jun 3, 2011 at 11:39 AM, dimi <dimitri...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I really don't like policies which are not clear about what's allowed and
> what isn't.

It doesn't sound like your app is in the grey zone (unless you want to
compete with Fling and AdultFriendFinder), but I want to re-iterate
one thing:

Official policies are irrelevant. You might have official permission
to run xyz grey-zone site today but it could easily be revoked
tomorrow without notice. I've seen it happen with CDNs, merchant
accounts, and billers. Even if Google said they are ok with adult
content, you'd be insane to build on a platform with a single
provider.

I normally mock the people that criticize GAE apps for being
non-portable. But there is a class of business problems for which
portability really is a primary requirement. I have zero ethical
problems with the porn industry (as a whole - there are certainly
plenty of individual slimeballs) but I have to admit that it's waaay
easier, technologywise, to be working outside that space.

Jeff

[dimi]

Thanks Jeff, really appreciate you talking the time to inform me.

With the information I have now, I ll make sure my app uses several interfaces so the app can be swithed quickly to another hosting environment - in case Google dislikes my site or in case we have issues with the policy and need another hosting partner.

App engine uses everyday technologies you can find everywhere (if you have a good system admin at your disposal;))

My budged is limited, so GAE is the perfect partner to start with.

[JH]

-1 for: men with nude torsos is adult content too?

[Brandon Wirtz]

Any Exec with a stick up his ass is clearly in to kink and won't be an
issue... :-)

[Adam Sah]

Ikai-- once again, lovely, straight answer with a terrific example.  thank you.

adam

[Douglas Finley]

Not relevant to my apps.

Possibly stupid question, if the images are not publicly available (aka private behind a paywall etc) and they are not actually hosted (image data)

on the gae datastore...maybe s3 or another storage service.

Yes they would be called with code hosted on app engine and displayed within html hosted on app engine....Good Bad or Ugly?

[Douglas Finley]

The Content displayed and/or processed through your Application or other web site utilizing the Service shall not contain any of the following types of content:

Nvr mind.