Google announced that it will do more to act against the spread of non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII) on Google Search. It has partnered with StopNCII.org, a free tool designed to support victims of NCII abuse.
The search giant will proactively identify and remove content that violates its policy against NCII. Over the coming months, it will start using StopNCII"s hashes, or digital footprints of images and videos of such type, to act against NCII.
According to StopNCII"s website, these hashes are created with the help of people who had their intimate images posted online without consent. NCII can also include images or videos of someone shared offline, manipulated images, or AI-generated explicit deepfakes.
Its partners can use the hashes to find matching images uploaded to their platform or service and remove them if the image abuse policy is violated.
The latest announcement builds on top of Google"s existing support for people who deal with NCII abuse. Google has made changes to its algorithm from time to time to reduce the reach of such content and has tools to request the removal of NCII from Google Search.
While NCII abuse itself can be distressing for the affected people, the rise of generative AI has also fueled synthetic images and videos that portray people in sexually explicit contexts, distributed without their consent. "We have also heard from survivors and advocates that given the scale of the open web, there’s more to be done to reduce the burden on those who are affected by it," the company said.
StopNCII is part of a UK-based charity, South West Grid for Learning (SWGfL), and it"s already working with several other tech giants, including Microsoft, Meta, TikTok, Reddit, and Snapchat.
Microsoft announced a proactive program last year to use StopNCII"s hashes to remove non-consensual intimate images from its Bing search engine. Meta was among the 50 non-government organizations to support the launch of StopNCII.org back in 2021.