Celebrity attorney threatening Google with $100 million lawsuit over links to leaked pictures

A recent scandal that involved countless private pictures of several high-profile female celebrities being published online was initially linked to Apple’s iCloud, however such claims were never validated and the Cupertino software company has publicly denied such allegations. After taking aim at Apple, some of the outraged celebrities are now targeting Google, threatening to sue the company behind its web search results linking to their leaked photos.

In the United States, a person or organization cannot prevent Google from linking to these types of pictures because the search engine is practically viewed as a publisher, according to CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. However, under Europe’s new right to be forgotten law, a plaintiff can request to have web search links to this type of content removed, but these changes would only apply to specific territories that operate under this ordinance.

In response to this ongoing incident, Google released the following statement to CNN:

We’ve removed tens of thousands of pictures — within hours of the requests being made — and we have closed hundreds of accounts. The Internet is used for many good things. Stealing people’s private photos isn’t one of them.

Marty Singer, an attorney acting on behalf of several celebrities involved in this scandal is threatening Google with a lawsuit demanding $100 million in damages, claiming the company isn’t honoring the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

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