Navigating Google’s Revenge Porn Portal
Revenge Porn is the sharing of intimate images without the subject’s consent. As technology increases accessibility to the Internet, revenge porn has also increased. Google has taken steps to combat this disturbing trend from infiltrating its platform. This article will talk you through Google’s revenge porn submission process, while explaining the benefits and limitations of this process. If you want to learn more about revenge porn generally, check out our Revenge Porn Resources here: [URLs].
What is Google’s Stance on Revenge Porn?
Google has a zero-tolerance policy on the non-consensual sharing of nude, sexually explicit, or non-explicit intimate images and videos. Google has created a portal in the help center specifically dedicated to reporting and removing revenge porn from Google search results: https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/7540088?hl=en. This portal can provide victims with quick relief by de-indexing the distressing content from search results. While the portal is fairly straightforward, there are simple mistakes that a revenge porn victim can make that will prevent proper processing of the request.
How to Fill Out Google’s Revenge Porn Portal:
Submitting the wrong URL to Google’s Revenge Porn Portal will prevent a request from being processed. It is important to properly isolate the URLs requested. For example, one section of the portal asks for the “URL of the page where the offending image or video appears.” This URL is the URL to the website where your content appears, not the URL to the Google search results page showing your content. It is important not to confuse these URLs when reporting a submission or Google may not properly process your request.
You should follow the following steps to isolate the URL of the page to the content in question:
Get a page URL
- Do a Google search for the page you want to find.
- Click the search result with the URL you need. This will take you to the site.
- In your browser’s address bar at the top of the page, click once to select the entire URL.
- Copy the URL by right-clicking it selecting Copy.
- Paste the URL by right-clicking it selecting Paste.
Another section of Google’s Revenge Porn Portal asks for the “URL to the offending image or video.” This means the URL to the actual isolated image or video. You should follow these steps to attain the URL to the targeted image or video:
Get an image URL
- Do a search on images.google.com for the image you want to find.
- Right-click the image.
- Depending on what system you’re using, select the image URL by clicking one of these:
- Chrome: Copy image address
- Safari: Copy image address
- Internet Explorer: Properties Copy the URL address shown
- Firefox: Copy image location
Google has recently updated this portal to request that victims show a copy of their government ID. When supplying a copy of your government ID, you should be mindful to block out sensitive information, including your address and social security number, if applicable.
The Limitations of Google’s Revenge Porn Portal
It does not remove intimate content that is not revenge porn.
Google’s Revenge Porn Portal is not for professional boudoir photos, content from camming sites, or pornography that was filmed with consent. This portal is limited to revenge porn, which is photo or video content that was intended to be private and was shared without your consent. If you would like to remove boudoir photos, content from camming sites, or pornography, you should elicit the assistance of an attorney to purchase the copyright to your content and help you submit takedown notices.
It does not completely remove the content from the Internet
While this portal can be extremely successful in removing distressing photo and video content from search results, it does not remove the content from the underlying website. The only way to fully remove the photo or video content from the internet is to remove it from the originating website. An attorney can help you navigate this process.
Deindexing content from Google will make it harder to find if you want to fully remove it later
Deindexing, or making content non-indexed, is essentially telling Google not to show it in image or web search results. If you want to remove the targeted content from the underlying website, you should save copies of all URLs before submitting a removal request to Google’s Revenge Porn Portal. If you fail to document the URLs properly, it may be extremely difficult for you to identify the content’s original location. This can unfortunately result in a situation where your content spreads to additional sites, increasing the scope of future content removal efforts.
Removed content can be reindexed
Websites that post revenge porn sometimes engage in shady tactics to reindex revenge porn so that it can be found in Google. This occurs when a website changes the content’s URL, often by assigning a moving page number to the URL. If this happens, your content will be reindexed in Google. This is why it is important to target the original source for the content, while utilizing Google’s Revenge Porn Portal for temporary relief.
If you are the victim of revenge porn, you have options for removing the content. Google’s Revenge porn portal is one tool that can help you regain control of your search results. An experienced content removal attorney can help you discuss your options for removal as well as preserve data trails to potentially identify the person targeting you.
If you have been the victim of revenge porn, please don’t hesitate to contact Internet & Defamation Attorney Alexandra Arko (ALA@kjk.com).