Google has countered accusations made by Hollywood lawyer Marty Singer, who represents several dozens of female victims of image hacking, that the search engine company failed "to act expeditiously" over the scandal.
The letter sent on Oct. 1 claimed that the Internet company dealt with the leaked photos issue in a way that is very unsatisfactory.
Singer wrote that even though the firm already sent several written reminders to Google on removing the images, many photos could still be seen on Google, YouTube and BlogSpot.
According to Singer, "Google is making millions and profiting from the victimization of women."
Earlier in September, several nude photos went viral on sites such as 4chan and Reddit. The nude photos purportedly belonged to a number of popular female celebrities. These would include Kim Kardashian, Amber Heard, Rihanna, Selena Gomez, Jennifer Lawrence, Amber Heard, Kate Upton, Cara Delevingne and Ariana Grande. The incident on hacked nude photos is described as the biggest celebrity scandal to date.
Singer said that Google is aware that the explicit images are stolen and hacked. It also knows that they are private and confidential.
"Yet Google has taken little or no action to stop these outrageous violations," adds Singer.
A spokesperson of Google said that the company had acted quickly on the law firm's request and had put down tens of thousands of images in a matter of hours. Hundreds of accounts had also been shut down.
"We've removed tens of thousands of pictures, within hours of the requests being made, and we have closed hundreds of accounts," said the company's spokesperson. "The Internet is used for many good things. Stealing people's private photos is not one of them."
In contrast to Google's "slow" handling of the issue, Singer mentioned that other sites such as Twitter were able to respond and give in to their demands in a timely manner.
Google explains that just like other online companies, the decision to react relies on getting notified on such type of content, which can be done either directly by the affected party or by the filing of authentic DMCA requests.
Singer also compared Google's actions with that of the NFL by saying that the company has become blind while players victimized and assaulted women and children. Google, on the other hand, has allegedly turned a blind eye and done nothing while its sites continue to victimize and hurt women.
To be saved from the looming $100 million lawsuit, Google is required to remove the hacked images from all of its hosted and owned sites.
