Celebrity attorney Martin Singer, whose law firm represents several high profile female celebrities whose inappropriate photos were leaked online during the Labor Day weekend this year, threatens Google with a $100 million lawsuit on their behalf, for the distribution of the incriminated images, the LA Times writes. The search giant denies liability, though, saying that it has taken down tens of thousands of images and closed hundreds of accounts related to the leak.
Several celebrities, including Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence and model Kate Upton, were the victims of a hacker attack on Apple’s iCloud service, containing several inappropriate and private photos of them that were quickly published by the attackers through online services like 4Chan and Reddit. Attorney Martin Singer has accused Google of failing to act quickly and effectively enough when asked to remove the images from its own services, including YouTube and Blogspot.
The letter sent to the search giant by the attorney references dozens of “female celebrities, actresses, models and athletes” whose personal pictures were stolen, but does not mention specific names. The attorney accused Google of doing nothing but collecting ad revenue from its “co-conspirator” advertising partners, seeking to capitalize on the scandal rather than quashing it. “Like the NFL, which turned a blind eye while its players assaulted and victimized women and children, Google has turned a blind eye while its sites repeatedly exploit and victimize these women”, the letter reads. It demands the search giant to act on removing all such content from its own services and block all users and websites involved in their distribution.
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The search giant has responded publicly on Thursday to the letter sent to them by Martin Singer over the celebrity leaks. The internet company said to have removed “tens of thousands of pictures within hours of the requests being made” and closing hundreds of accounts. As Google’s spokesperson told the LA Times, “The Internet is used for many good things. Stealing people’s private photos is not one of them.”