Google Entertains Requests For “Revenge Porn” Image Removal

Revenge porn – this is one particularly real issue in many countries, as more and more people get desensitized to porn, while the number of devices that are capable of snapping photos of folks in intimate positions are truly mind boggling. Hence, it is not surprising at all to know that couples do take photos of themselves while being intimate, and if the relationship turns sour, there is the danger of one of the parties disseminating such private photos to the general public – to shame, or even blackmail the other party, who knows? The motives are many, but as you can tell, to have your private photos placed online can be a huge psychological blow to anyone.

Hence, Google has stepped up to the plate to say that they will, in due time, introduce a formal process which will enable folks to put in a request for the removal of “revenge porn” images from Google’s search engine through a web form. Other kinds of “revenge porn” do not involve jilted lovers, but rather, they might be your personal stash of intimate photos that have been stolen from your computer by hackers before it is distributed to other accounts.

Google also noted that most of the time, the victims tend to be women rather than men, and here is an excerpt of what they have to say about it.

Our philosophy has always been that Search should reflect the whole web. But revenge porn images are intensely personal and emotionally damaging, and serve only to degrade the victims—predominantly women. So going forward, we’ll honor requests from people to remove nude or sexually explicit images shared without their consent from Google Search results. This is a narrow and limited policy, similar to how we treat removal requests for other highly sensitive personal information, such as bank account numbers and signatures, that may surface in our search results.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Computers
Tags: Google