Google Responds to Lawsuit from Celebs With Leaked Nude Photos: Photos Removed 'Within Hours'
Google has responded to the $100 million lawsuit threat over celebrity nude photo hack incident, saying that the California-based company has deleted the pictures "within hours" after requests have been made.
"We've removed tens of thousands of pictures — within hours of the requests being made — and we have closed hundreds of accounts," a Google representative told TheWrap. "The internet is used for many good things. Stealing people's private photos is not one of them."
Earlier this month, a letter addressed to the Google executives has been sent by a Los Angeles attorney who represents about a dozen of celebrities affected by the scandal.
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The letter by Lawyer Marty Singer of Lavely & Singer was later on published by the New York Post's Page Six website. It stated that the tech giant failed "to act expeditiously and responsibly to remove the images," and "knowingly accommodating, facilitating, and perpetuating the unlawful conduct."
"Google knows the images are hacked stolen property, private and confidential photos and videos unlawfully obtained and posted by pervert predators who are violating the victims' privacy rights … Yet Google has taken little or no action to stop these outrageous violations," Singer further wrote. They "recklessly allowed these blatant violations to continue in conscious disregard for our clients' rights."
The letter further stated that Singer and his firm contacted various website operators and internet service providers demanding them to take down the images under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Earlier in September, nude photos of stars including "Hunger Games" star Jennifer Lawrence, "Sports Illustrated" cover girl and model Kate Upton, Johnny Depp's fiancée Amber Heard and others went viral over Reddit, 4Chan, and other sites.
The said incident is considered to be the biggest celebrity hacking scandal in history.
