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Google Blogger to begin automatically redirecting users to country-specific URLs

Google Blogger to begin automatically redirecting users to country-specific URLs

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Google is implementing a new system that automatically redirects users to country-specific URLs that match their IP address' location when they're trying to access a Google Blogger site. It's being rolled out slowly and it's designed to help Google "continue promoting free expression and responsible publishing while providing greater flexibility in complying with valid removal requests pursuant to local law."

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Google is implementing a new system that automatically redirects users to country-specific URLs that match their IP address' location when they're trying to access a Google Blogger site. It's being rolled out slowly and Google says it will the company to "continue promoting free expression and responsible publishing while providing greater flexibility in complying with valid removal requests pursuant to local law," much like Twitter's new censoring tools. For example, this will allow the search giant to shut down a pro-Nazi blog at [example].blogspot.com.de for German users while letting those in countries that allow such content to continue viewing it at the [example].blogspot.com URL. Google says that without this setup it'd have to remove the offending content globally.

In a Google Blogger support article, the company says that users will be able to override the redirect to a country-code top level domain (ccTLD) by entering the specific "no country redirect" URL. If your blog has a custom, non-Google URL, then you're going to be excluded from these changes, and it looks like the redirects are only going to occur in a select few countries. It's not clear which countries are included yet, but some in Australia are reporting that they've experienced the redirects already.