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Google takes action for Revenge Porn victims

Search engine giant Google has announced that it will update its policy to help victims of revenge porn who wish to stop their images and videos appearing in Google searches.

Speaking on their Public Policy blog:

“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.”

Amit Singhal
Senior Vice President, Google Search

 In the past the company have resisted removing images from their search results. This is a great step forward for victims of revenge porn who have previously met huge difficulty when trying to reclaim control of their lives. The news has been met with joy by victims and campaigners around the world.

American YouTube star, Chrissy Chambers, tweeted her thanks from the account she shares with her girlfriend, Bria Kam. Chrissy has campaigned against revenge porn after her ex-partner posted images online.

The change in Google’s policy does not mean that images will be removed from the sites on which they are displayed, but does mean that they will hopefully be harder for people to find; market research suggests that Google handles around three-quarters of global search traffic.

“We know this won’t solve the problem of revenge porn—we aren’t able, of course, to remove these images from the websites themselves—but we hope that honoring people’s requests to remove such imagery from our search results can help.”

Amit Singhal
Senior Vice President, Google Search

Earlier this year, the law was changed in England and Wales, so people convicted of posting sexually explicit images or videos of ex-partners without permission could face up to two years in jail. Similar laws are being considered in Scotland and Ireland. So far 23/50 states in the US have passed laws that protect victims from this type of crime.

A web form will be available in the coming weeks to make content removal requests to Google. We will of course keep you updated!

What do you think of this change? Will it help to make things easier for victims of revenge porn? Tweet us @CybersmileHQ and join the conversation.

If you have been affected by revenge porn, or other kinds of digital abuse, you can always Contact Us for help.