Google is Finally Removing Links to Stolen Jennifer Lawrence Photos

photos: Flickr 

Interesting - Nearly two months after photos of Jennifer Lawrence, Rihanna, Kate Upton, and other celebrities were reportedly stolen from Apple's iCloud service and distributed online, links to sites hosting Lawrence's photos have started being removed from Google.

Based on Guardian, Google has removed two links to a site hosting the stolen photos, after Lawrence's lawyers filed takedown request under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), claiming copyright infringement.

Google has been under intense scrutiny since the photos were leaked in late August. In early Oktober, they were threatened with a  $100 million lawsuit for failing to remove stolen images a month after a takedown request. Entertainment lawyer Martin Singer, whose firm represents several of the women hacked, sent a letter to Google claiming, among other things, that the company 'has turned a blind eye while its sites repeatedly exploit and victimize these women.'

In a response statement, Google staffers claimed they have 'removed tens of thousands of images-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'.

While this is a small victory for Lawrence and her lawyers, there're still many more links to be removed, and noise to cut through. Earlier this month, Corynne McSherry, intellectual property director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In a exclusive interview with Vanity Fair, Lawrence called out the sites hosting these photos for profit, and called he hack a sex crime.