A sign for Google at its offices in California. (EPA/Yonhap) Caption 1-2: One of the questions asked by “Company L” in a corporate survey.
“A video of me having sex was illegally leaked, and I’m being relentlessly ridiculed and victimized online. Please remove the search terms that identify me, investigate this matter thoroughly, and help me put an end to this abuse.”“I’m struggling to go about my daily life because of the severe emotional distress and sexual humiliation I’m experiencing. I’m asking you to immediately remove the relevant URL, block access to it in the country, and prevent it from appearing in search results.”These are examples of takedown requests sent directly to Google by Korean victims of illegal filming, also known as image-based sexual abuse. The victims made these desperate requests as the web portal spread personal information related to illegally obtained footage, even generating related search terms.This is because Google has the ability to remove information related to digital sex crimes from its search results. Yet in some cases, the search engine has instead compounded the harm.The Hankyoreh has confirmed that, without victims’ consent, Google forwarded their removal requests — including sensitive information exactly as submitted — to an affiliated research institute, resulting in the requests being made publicly accessible. In addition to those sent by individuals, removal requests from public agencies were also indiscriminately made public.Seoul has demanded that Google delete the text of the removal requests and lodged a strong protest, subsequently launching an investigation into the matter.The Hankyoreh’s investigation found that the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) demanded the blocking and deletion of all sensitive data on the institute’s project website. This included action on 47 victim requests whose content was posted without authorization, as well as at least 100 instances in which the names of organizations seeking the removal of such content were used as search terms. The requested items were deleted.“We consider this a very serious matter,” a ministry official said. “We have filed a complaint with Google requesting to first delete posts containing the victims’ personal information and demanding detailed explanations and measures to prevent a recurrence.”The commission said that it had “first deliberated on blocking access to posts containing victims’ personal information and lodged a strong protest with Google.”On a website for “Project L” — a pseudonym for the purpose of this article — takedown requests from victims of digital sex crimes were posted verbatim. In addition to the victims’ names, ages, workplaces, schools and mobile phone numbers, even their messages expressing desperation like “suffering extreme pain” and “please save me” were posted without any attempt at preserving anonymity.Official takedown requests sent by the ministry and the KCSC on behalf of victims were also systematically ignored. After discovering this, the Hankyoreh informed the relevant ministries on Aug. 25 and requested a response.The intervention led to the mass deletion, within 13 days, of posts on Project L’s site containing victims’ personal information. On Saturday, Gender Equality and Family Minister Won Min-kyong summoned Google officials to a meeting, where she expressed strong regret over the disclosure of victims’ personal information and demanded an explanation of how the leaks occurred.
