SEARCH & DESTROY
Google lobby stalls NY revenge-porn bill
Google mounted an 11th-hour campaign to kill New York’s revenge-porn bill — and even the sponsor was questioning the proposal as the Senate slogged through the final scheduled day of its session Wednesday.
The Internet Association — an influential lobbying group working on behalf of Google and a host of other Web sites used to disseminate revenge porn — is fighting the bill, which has passed the Assembly and is awaiting Senate approval.
“On the brink of New York finally passing a revenge-porn law to become the 41st state with one, we are shocked to find that Google is holding it hostage,” said attorney Carrie Goldberg, who represents victims and helped draft the bill.
“Shame on Google that it’s putting its corporate greed before the sexual privacy of abuse victims,” she said.
The proposed legislation — which has languished in Albany since its introduction in 2013 and was recently taken up again after a Post exposé — would make nonconsensual dissemination of sexually explicit im- ages a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.
It would also help victims sue Web hosts to remove the offending images.
“The problem victims face is, while they may be able to identify the original poster, once an image is put online, it stays there forever, and without the help of companies like Tumblr and Google, the victims have no recourse,” said attorney Daniel Szalkiewicz, who represents the victims of revenge porn.
But Google doesn’t want the courts telling it what to do with content it hosts, advocates say.
“They hate the civil-law language that allows judges to order them to remove content, so they are putting pressure on the Senate to exempt them or to not hold the vote,” Goldberg said.
Speaking to The Post Wednesday, the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Phil Boyle, suggested lawmakers redo the bill to mirror other states — which lack provisions helping victims actually get their personal material taken down.
“There are laws against revenge porn in 40 other states, including California. If the New York Assembly truly wanted this legislation to pass, we can mirror a law like theirs,” he said.
“This bill isn’t going to be perfect, but let’s do what we need to do to protect women now, and if we need to make it stronger, absolutely we will.”
Gov. Cuomo has said he would sign the bill if it cleared the Legislature.
But Szalkiewicz said the civil provisions could face legal challenges because the federal Communications Decency Act of 1996 mandates that Internet services are not considered the “publishers” of third-party content posted to their sites — and ordering sites to remove content would treat them as publishers.
Goldberg said courts should be allowed to decide if the state law conflicts with federal law.
Internet Association Northeast Regional Director John Olsen said the group already works to remove bad actors from platforms it represents and “will continue working with lawmakers who are committed to solving this problem.”
Google representatives did not respond to requests for comment.