Google is putting its heavy muscle behind the movement to wipe out revenge porn. The company announced yesterday that it would honor requests to remove such images from search results, reports the Christian Science Monitor. Online forms will be available in a matter of weeks. "Our philosophy has always been that Search should reflect the whole web," says a Google blog post. "But revenge porn images are intensely personal and emotionally damaging, and serve only to degrade the victims—predominantly women." It sees the move as "a narrow and limited policy" in line with how it treats requests to delete other personal information such as bank account numbers.
The company also points out that it can't remove the images themselves from wherever they've been posted, but advocates are still hailing the move. "What we have seen in the last six months is this public consciousness about the profound economic and social impact of that posting nude images without someone's consent and often in violation of their trust can have on people's lives," a University of Maryland law professor tells USA Today. At Gizmodo, Adam Clark Estes puts it more forcefully: "It's about damn time," he writes, calling Google's move "a tremendous step forward in the way-too-arduous fight to put a stop to this vile behavior." About 20 states currently outlaw revenge porn, and a bill will be introduced in the House soon to make it a federal crime. (More Google stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
