Revenge porn victim hopes Google can make video hard to find

Google is helping Brabant revenge porn victim Chantal remove search results involving her name. A sex tape of her and an ex that was posted on Facebook last year is still popping up in search results when her name is googled, causing harm in her personal and work life, RTL Nieuws reports.

A hitherto unknown offender posted the sex ape on Facebook last year. Last month Chantal and the social media giant reached an agreement on independent investigators going through Facebook's systems to try and find out who posted the video.

In the summer of last year a Dutch court ruled that Facebook had to give up information on who posted the sex tape, but Facebook claimed not to have that information. The independent investigators will now see if that is true.

As the sex tape was also picked up by other websites, it still appears in search results when Chantal's name is googled. She turned to a specialized law firm to for help. The firm appealed to Google, who agreed to remove the search results. Lawyer Eline Streefkerk of law firm White Canvas Reputation Guards called it "a breakthrough (...) in the correction of injustice for a virtually defenseless revenge porn victim".

Anyone can submit a request to Google to remove search results under the so-called "right to be forgotten". Google then weighs the privacy of the applicant against the importance that the information be available before deciding how to proceed.