Google responds to nude celeb leak lawsuit deleting ‘tens of thousands’ of images
Google has removed thousands of leaked celebrity nude images after it on Friday faced a lawsuit from a prominent lawyer threatening to sue the firm for “violating privacy”.
Singer may not represent Rihanna whose images were leaked recently
As a result, tens of thousands of celebrity images leaked during the iCloud hacking scandal, now dubbed the ‘Fappening’, were removed from the search engine with hundreds of Google + and YouTube accounts also deleted for violation of terms and conditions.
Entertainment lawyer Marty Singer, representing over a dozen (unnamed) women whose images were stolen in the scandal, condemned Google’s inaction during the leak, accusing it of “blatantly unethical behaviour”.
Singer said: “Google knows the images are hacked stolen property, private and confidential photos and videos unlawfully obtained and posted by pervert predators who are violating the victims' privacy rights".
Responding to the accusation, Google said: “Our turnaround is generally hours, not weeks.
"Of course people continue to post these images on the web, so - like other online services - we rely on people notifying us to help us take them down, whether by flagging content, or filing DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) requests."
The images, which first hit sites 4Chan and Reddit also appeared on Google sites such as Google + and YouTube.
The search giant said: “We're removing these photos for community guidelines and policy violations (eg nudity and privacy violation) on YouTube, Blogger and Google+."
Cara Delevingne, Rihanna, Kate Upton, Kim Kardashian Anna Kendrick and Mary Elizabeth Winstead were also targeted in the most recent leaks.
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