Up until recently the Internet has sucked with preventing non-consensual revenge porn from appearing online, often an act conducted in the case of spiteful, sexist exes or hackers. In solidarity with fellow tech companies—Facebook, Reddit and Twitter—Google has joined in the attempt of preventing nonconsensual pornographic images from appearing in their searches, hopefully putting a limit to online exposure culture.
However, the multinational tech company still cannot remove the actual imagery from their websites but only prevent it from being searchable, thus still accessible to the public. Even if so, it’s a progressive step forward in making the Internet a more comfortable and safe place for women.
Online assault, of its various forms, has been a growing topic of discussion as it has been able to freely exist on the Internet with minimal limitations. Revenge porn, however, is arguably one of the worst forms of online assault as its sexist nature can be exceedingly traumatic to its victims. After a series of private nude photos were leaked last year of celebrities, one of its victims, Gabriel Union, wrote a compelling essay for Cosmopolitan condemning the shame culture that has become embedded in the discussion of revenge porn: “I can’t help but be reminded that since the dawn of time, women and children, specifically women of colour, have been victimized, and the power over their own bodies taken from them,” she writes. “I thought, this is a targeted attack, a hate crime against women.”
[via The Guardian]
