Google Responds to The Fappening Celebrity Victims’ $100M Lawsuit Threat

Google has responded to the legal threat sent by the lawyers of the female celebrity victims of The Fappening.

In a letter dated October 1, Hollywood top lawyer Marty Singer wrote to Google, slamming the Internet giant for apparently supporting perverts by failing to remove the hacked photos of female celebrities.

Read: The Fappening Female Celebrity Victims Threatening to Sue Google for Allegedly Supporting Pervert Predators

According to Singer, Google has been “making millions and profiting from the victimisation of women.” It was sent a notice from the celebrities’ attorneys, demanding it to remove the images from its sites in according to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which states that Internet Service Providers and host providers should “expeditiously” remove unlawful images.

Google allegedly failed to do so. Many of the leaked stolen images of stars including Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Kirsten Dunst, Teresa Palmer, Rihanna and Kim Kardashian are still online.

“...Google is perpetuating the despicable conduct of these habitual pervert predators ... by allowing them to continue to operate and post the Images with impunity. Google is knowingly allowing vast and pervasive copyright infringement and violation of privacy rights against these women, who are being repeated violated, exploited and victimised,” the letter reads.

Singer, who represents “over a dozen female celebrities” who were not identified in the letter, threatens to sue Google for U$100 million [$114 million] unless Google removes the hacked images and videos from all its sites immediately.

However, Google said it already did just that.

“We’ve removed tens of thousands of pictures – within hours of the requests being made – and we have closed hundreds of accounts,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. “The Internet is used for many good things. Stealing people’s private photos is not one of them.”

According to Google, the company removes items when they receive valid copyright notices. As The Hollywood Reporter noted, this may become a problem for the celebrities whose nude photos were taken by someone else.

If the photos were selfies, the women have the right to demand the removal of their photos. However, it’s a different matter if the photos were taken by another person since that person has the authority to come forward for the photos.

This is the same case with an unnamed porn site. Lawrence’s attorney sent a letter to the Web site, demanding that her stolen nude shots be removed. The porn site has refused, according to TMZ, claiming that the photos were not selfies, and therefore were probably not taken by the actress herself.

The pornography Web site said that it would only take the leaked photos down if the person who shot them would come forward.

Read: Porn Site Refusing to Take Down Jennifer Lawrence’s Nude Photos, Saying She Doesn’t Own Them