Celeb nude photo leak intensifies: Google threatened with $100m lawsuit

Google may be sued for $100m over failure to remove hacked photos from subsidiaries including YouTube and BlogSpot.

17:51 03 October 2014

Lawyers representing celebrities whose private photos were published by hackers have accused Google of “making millions from the victimization of women” and threaten to sue the search engine company for $100million.

The largest celebrity hacking scandal saw private (and often nude) images of dozens of famous celebrities including Kate Upton, Jennifer Lawrence, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian and many more. Their intimate photos were distributed on the internet last month.

Top entertainment lawyer Martin Singer said that Google should pay for its “blatantly unethical behaviour.” In a letter addressed to Google’s co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and other top executives, Singer wrote: “Google’s ‘do no evil’ motto is a sham.”

“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.”

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