Google Fights 'Revenge Porn' By Removing Sexually Explicit Photos On Request

Google will honor requests for those who want nude and sexually explicit images of themselves, shared without consent, to be removed from search results.

In a blog post, the search engine announced the change in policy, stemming from fears of “revenge porn” and “sextortion” sites that post explicit imagery of victims. An online request form will be made available soon that victims can use to request removals.

“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,” said Amit Singhal, senior vice president of Google Search.

Google says the policy is an extension of its current policy to remove highly sensitive information, such as signatures and bank account numbers. “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,” Singhal said.

USA Today notes that Google usually only removes results with a valid legal request. In the European Union, however, the “right to be forgotten” means anyone can ask for links to be removed that appear in name searches. Nearly 1 million links have been removed using this right.