Google has taken a big step toward protecting victims of revenge porn. In the coming weeks, the search giant will begin honoring requests from victims to stop linking to websites that host the damaging content in searches.
Google can't remove the content themselves, that's up to those who run the sites. But the revenge porn sites will not be listed, so those types of sites will be much harder to find. It will be a "narrow and limited policy," that will work similarly to how the company handles other sensitive personal information like bank records, the company said in a statement.
Revenge porn is explicit content posted to the web that often depicts a former partner without their permission, likely posted intending to harm or embarrass the person shown in the explicit material.
"Our philosophy has always been that Search should reflect the whole web. But revenge porn images are intensely personal and emotionally damaging, and serve only to degrade the victims—predominantly women," the company's senior vice president of Google Search said in a statement.
Revenge porn sites are a dark but growing part of the web. In recent years, activists have moved to pressure governments and tech companies alike to cut it from the Internet.
Google pulling revenge porn sites from searches is evidence the movement is picking up steam. Governments are starting to take notice, too.
Several states have passed revenge porn laws, including New York and Florida. And a man in California was recently sentenced to 18 years in prison on 27 counts of extortion and identity theft connected to running a revenge porn website.
Also, new laws in the U.K. make posting revenge porn punishable by up to two years in prison.