Google to Start Honoring Requests to Wipe 'Revenge Porn'

Google will start honoring requests to remove from search results nude or sexually explicit images posted on the Internet without consent.

The search giant noted that it will remove the search results the same way it does other sorts of highly sensitive personal information such as bank account numbers and Social Security numbers.

"Our philosophy has always been that search should reflect the whole Web," Amit Singhal, senior vice president of Google Search said in a blog post. "But revenge porn images are intensely personal and emotionally damaging, and serve only to degrade the victim - predominantly women."

The requests can be submitted through an online form in coming weeks, the search giant noted.

"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 wrote.

"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," said University of Maryland law professor Danielle Citron. "What victims will often tell you and what they tell me is that what they want most is not to have search results where their employers, clients and colleagues can Google them and see these nude photos. It's not just humiliating, it wrecks their chances for employment. It makes them undatable and unemployable."