Blogger Does Not Censor Comment Content

Periodically, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, we see a naive query.

How do I report a person who posts nasty things, in comments, on my blog?

And the unfortunate response here is

You can't report unwanted comments. There is no comment censoring agency.

Blogger considers comments to be protected as freedom of speech. Outside of moderation for spam - which is a collaborative activity - comments are up to you, the blog owner, to treat as you please.

You, the blog owner, may choose what level of authentication to require, from each commenter.

• Anyone - includes Anonymous Users
• Registered Users - includes OpenID
• Users with Google Accounts
• Only members of your blog

You, the blog owner, may choose how to moderate each non spam comment.

• Moderate before publishing.
  • Delete
  • Publish.
• Moderate after publishing.
  • Delete.
  • Don't delete.

Those are your choices. Blogger won't censor, nor do they accept reports about, undesirable content.

Since Blogger leaves these decisions to the blog owners, Blogger also won't un censor content. There's no comment review process, similar to spam review, where they re activate comments when properly requested by the would be comment publisher.

If you post comments which are not appreciated by the owners of the blogs where you post your comments, and you end up labeled a spammer, that's your problem which you must bear.

Like blocking specific viewers, blocking specific commenters, who choose to make unwanted comments, will be as productive as a game of Whac-A-Mole. Blogger chooses to not play that game.

Moderate the comments on your blog, because Blogger won't do that for you. Moderate, and help train the filters. Don't moderate, and accept the decisions made by other blog owners.

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The Need To Comment, Anonymously, Has To Remain A Possibility

Not all blog owners understand the need for people to post anonymous comments, against our blog posts. Periodically, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, we see the naivete expressed by some.

How do I find out who is posting anonymous comments to my blog?

These people do not understand the need for anonymous commenting.

You, as a blog owner, have the ability to select the level of authentication, to be required of anybody preparing to post a comment to your blog. For "Who Can Comment?", we find the selection list

1. Anyone - includes Anonymous Users
2. Registered Users - includes OpenID
3. Users with Google Accounts
4. Only members of this blog

People who wish to comment anonymously, yet provide a "Name" / "URL" to link back to their Blogger profile, or their blog / website, may do this at their discretion. Anybody doing this provides no guarantee of being genuine, however.

If you allow "anonymous users" to comment, then people who wish to comment anonymously need to be assured that their privacy will be respected. You can gather demographic data about your blogs visitors - and you may infer specific details about individual commenters - but the relevance of that policy will be limited by the precautions exercised by your commenters.

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Blogging Anonymously Has A Price

Blogger supports anonymity - both in our ability to maintain and to own a blog anonymously, and our ability to comment on blogs anonymously. But this anonymity comes with a price.

I need to contact the owner of "xxxxxxx.blogspot.com", but there is no contact information and the blog is private.

or

How do I find out who left an anonymous comment on my blog?

or

I can't access my blog - I forgot the password and the email address doesn't exist any more.

or

I deleted my account, and they won't give it back to me!

All of these are queries by bloggers who do not understand the price of anonymity.

If Blogger is going to preserve our anonymity as blog owners, and as commenters (on blogs where anonymous comments are allowed), they cannot give out any information, to anybody, that might disclose our identity.

Blogger / Google must protect anonymity diligently, to be trusted.

If Blogger / Google starts disclosing identity information, to people who ask casually, nobody will be able to trust our - or their - intentions.

If you let people comment anonymously on your blog, people will comment with the expectation that you won't be requiring any personal information, other than demographic information that's obtained through a visitor log. If you don't like anonymous comments, you either disable anonymous comments - or you moderate comments, and discard what you don't like.

You - and only you - must maintain your anonymous, multiple identities.

If you setup a new Blogger account, and then create a new blog, and you include no personal details in either the account or the blog, you will wind up with a Blogger account that cannot be recovered, if you ever forget the account name / password - or if the account is ever locked for "suspicious" / "unusual" activity.

Don't demand that Blogger break someone's anonymity, without legal need.

If someone publishes a blog without a Profile gadget, or publishes a blog privately, without including contact information somewhere, don't expect to casually write to Blogger and demand contact information. And don't try claiming to own the blog in question, and that you forgot the password - or that you cannot remember the many different email addresses that you may have used.

Blogger cannot disclose the identity - including the email address - of the owner, if anonymity is to be preserved. This includes if your blog is deleted, and you don't know the owner account.

You may have to find out owner identity, on your own.

It's possible that you can identify a contact, on your own. If you require contact information provided by Google, you'll need legal assistance, and a court order.