Google has responded to legal threats after failing to remove stolen private images of several female celebrities.
The Internet giant states that “tens of thousands” of the pictures in question have been removed since requests were made.
“We’ve removed tens of thousands of pictures — within hours of the requests being made — and we have closed hundreds of accounts,” a spokesperson for the company told Page Six in a statement. “The internet is used for many good things. Stealing people’s private photos is not one of them.”
In a letter dated Oct. 1, lawyer Marty Singer, who represents a dozen of the hacked women, threatened the company with a $100 million lawsuit, and accused it of “blatantly unethical behavior” and of “making millions and profiting from the victimization of women.”
Over Labor Day weekend, nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton and Kirsten Dunst appeared on 4chan, Reddit and other sites. Three weeks later, another round of pictures hit the Internet, including private photos of Rihanna, Amber Heard and Kim Kardashian.