Lawyers acting for Jennifer Lawrence, Rihanna, Cara Delevingne and other female stars whose private images were hacked have threatened to sue Google for $100 million.
A number of female celebrities - including Kim Kardashian West, Kate Upton, Amber Heard and Selena Gomez - have had their iCloud accounts targetted and had intimate photos shared on websites Reddit and 4Chan but legal representatives for over a dozen of the women has slammed the online giant for allegedly for allegedly failing to remove the images and “making millions from the victimisation of women.”
Lawyer Marty Singer has written a sternly-worded letter to Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as Eric Schmidt and Google lawyers accusing them of “blatantly unethical behaviour”.
According to the New York Post’s Page Six column, the document goes on to claim Google has failed “to act expeditiously, and responsibly to remove the images, but in knowingly accommodating, facilitating, and perpetuating the unlawful conduct.”
It added: “Google is making millions and profiting from the victimisation of women.”
The lawyer pointed out his firm sent a notice to remove the images four weeks ago, and several more since, but many of the photos are still on BlogSpot and YouTube, which are both owned by Google.
He added: “Google knows the images are hacked stolen property, private and confidential photos and videos unlawfully obtained and posted by pervert predators who are violating the victims’ privacy rights ... Yet Google has taken little or no action to stop these outrageous violations.
“Because the victims are celebrities with valuable publicity rights you do nothing -- nothing but collect millions of dollars in advertising revenue ... as you seek to capitalise on this scandal rather than quash it.”
