I work at Google, but I am not speaking for them, I am just an engineer, not a PR guy. If you pay attention to Vic Gundotra (the guy leading the G+ effort), yo

I work at Google, but I am not speaking for them, I am just an engineer, not a PR guy. If you pay attention to Vic Gundotra (the guy leading the G+ effort), you'll know that he just wants to make G+ an inviting, friendly place on the web. He wants to avoid G+ becoming like the cesspool of hostile idiocy you see in youtube comments. The ban on offensive pictures is consistent with his vision. It's the same reason he doesn't want fake names on G+. Personally, I strongly dislike the censorship. A profile picture with just middle finger by itself is lame, sure, but if you are giving the finger to Rick Perry after his horribly anti-gay comments, that is important speech that (IMO) Google shouldn't censor. I'd vastly prefer people be able to make potentially offensive gestures, and censoring 100 idle middle fingers of idiot rage is not worth suppressing 1 middle finger to crazy political candidate. Google still has a spine, it doesn't do everything for the advertising dollar. Pulling out of China could cost Google a lot of money, but it's the right thing anyway, and I am absolutely proud that the did. But "you are the product" is overly jaded and misses the simple explanation. The G+ leadership believes censoring offensive gestures is best for G+ users and for the health and growth of the G+ network.