Concerns have been raised that Google+ could become "a cesspool that no one wants to visit ... sorta like Myspace" – by none other than the founder of Myspace.

Tom Anderson, who co-founded Myspace in 2003, issued the warning during a wide-ranging debate about censorship on Google's various platforms, a debate started after TechCrunch columnist MG Siegler had his profile picture removed by Google.

"Earlier today I noticed something funny," Siegler lamented on his blog. "My Google profile picture – the picture associated with my Gmail account, my GChat account, my Google+ account, etc – had vanished. A bug? Nope."

So what was behind this Kafkaesque cleansing?

"It turns out, Google – without telling me – went into my account and deleted my profile picture. Why? Because I am giving the middle finger in it."

The picture in question shows Siegler casually raising his middle digit to the camera as he glances away from the lens. Drawing on the defiance the picture exudes, Siegler boldly attempted to re-upload the picture to Google+. Again it was deleted, prompting Siegler to turn to his blog to rail against Google's policing.

My problem isn't so much with the fact that I couldn't have a profile picture of myself giving everyone the finger – which I can and do on Twitter and elsewhere – it's that no one bothered to tell me or warn me before they just went into my account and deleted the picture. What if this was the only place I had stored the picture?

"This also seems like a slippery slope," Siegler continued. "In certain cultures, various hand gestures mean different things. Is Google also going to delete my profile picture if I have my fingers up to my chin, for example?"

Siegler's post was widely read and shared, prompting Tom Anderson – aka "Myspace Tom", the first real (socially networked) friend millions of Myspace users ever had – to post his response on Google+. Anderson defended the censorship. "All Google+ has done here is execute on its stated plan: removing offensive photos," he wrote, adding that Facebook, Twitter and Myspace had similar policies.

Anderson suggested that the reason the photo had been removed from Google+ and not other mediums was not that the site "has decided to do things differently, it's just that they're ahead of the game and doing things better".

In any case, I would respectfully submit that we, the users of Google+ (and Facebook or Twitter) don't need to see you flipping us off, nor do we need to see you naked, or displaying something else generally considered offensive. When a social network [lets] that stuff slide, it turns into a cesspool that no one wants to visit... sorta like Myspace was.

It's not the first time Anderson has criticised his creation on a rival site. In September he posted to his Facebook page:

"Why am I not on Myspace? Because, I left the company in early 2009, and like most of you, I don't like using it anymore ... not a fan of what the new folks have done with Myspace."

Anderson's suggestion that Google+ was right to remove Siegler's photo provoked much chin-stroking among thread commenters and media pundits alike.

"Who's to say what's offensive?," posited journalist and long-time Google watcher Jeff Jarvis.

"If anyone and everyone can, we end up with the lowest common denominator of speech and the highest watermark of regulation and restriction."

Jarvis pointed out that Google does not delete links "to content some people think is offensive on search and we would not want it to".

Google does not want – and we should not want – it to be in the position of the world's censor. When governments – from Iran to India now – demand that Google take down links to allegedly offensive content, I among many protest. So should Google censor societies? Why is Google+ different from search? It is a platform that people use to communicate as they use the web and Google provides the means for people and what they say to be found.

Tech columnist Mike Elgan was also in favour of Siegler's finger, pointing out that: "Different things offend different people."

The best way is user choice. If I'm offended by MG Siegler's profile pic, I can block him in one second. In other words, Google+ has already given us the tools to censor according to OUR values. In still other words, this problem has already been solved. And now they're creating a new one unnecessarily.

It remains to be seen whether Siegler's finger will return to his Google+ profile. For the moment, he has come up with a novel alternative.