Google bans revenge porn

Google said it would soon create a process for victims of revenge porn to request the removal of private photographs from the search engine’s results.

Revenge porn is a digital phenomenon that entails the distribution of sexually explicit images without a person’s consent, typically as a form of retribution or blackmail.

In a blog post Friday, Google’s senior vice president for search, Amit Singhal, said the tech company would post a web form in the coming weeks where requests can be submitted to remove images.

“Our philosophy has always been that Search should ref lect the whole web. But revenge porn images are intensely personal and emotionally damaging, and serve only to degrade the victims—predominantly women,” Singhal wrote.

The images will still remain on the Internet, but they’ll be much harder to find without the help of the search engine.

The new policy is not unlike existing rules that allow people to request the removal of sensitive personal information such as bank account numbers and signatures from Google’s search results, Singhal said.

Reddit, an online bulletin, has also cracked down on revenge porn, largely because of the dissemination of nude celebrity photos obtained by hackers.