Google Attempts to Protect Victims from Revenge Porn Images

Google has begun to take proactive steps to cut down on the posting of revenge porn, i.e., revealing images posted by an ex or hacker in an attempt to humiliate or extract money. According to Amit Singhal, Senior Vice President, Google Search, Google will “honor requests from people to remove nude or sexually explicit images shared without their consent from Google Search results.” To achieve that goal, sometime this summer Google will post an online form so victims of revenge porn can request removal from Google search results of links to specific websites. Google’s new policy will not completely remove revenge porn images from the internet. Although the images would no longer be available in the search results, the website would still be accessible through the direct web address. Google cannot delete the underlying website.

Google has long resisted removing online content from its search engine. However, Google has taken steps to protect against revenge porn because the images are “intensely personal and emotionally damaging, and serve only to degrade the victims – predominantly women”.

This policy, combined with states such as California that bring actions to convict revenge porn website operators should provide victims with some comfort that they can take steps to remove intimate images posted without their permission.

Sources: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2015/06/revenge-porn-and-search.html http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/google-to-remove-revenge-porn-images-from-search-results/?_r=0 http://fortune.com/2015/06/19/google-revenge-porn-removal/ http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/google-cracks-revenge-porn-nudity-policy-31899203

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