Microsoft(MSFT) is making it easier for victims of revenge porn to remove images and URLs they find hurtful and embarrassing from Bing search results. The news was disclosed Wednesday in a blog post by Jacqueline Beauchere, the company’s chief online safety officer. Revenge porn refers to the practice of an estranged spouse or partner posting intimate pictures or other materials on the Internet to “shame” the other person.
Beauchere pointed to a new reporting page that consumers can use to register the problematic links and photos and said Microsoft will remove those links and videos, once confirmed, from Bing search results. And, it will “remove access to the content itself when shared on OneDrive or Xbox Live, when we are notified by a victim,” Beauchere wrote.
It’s not that Microsoft will delete the image from the person’s storage account, but it would eliminate his ability to create a shareable link of that image, a Microsoft spokesman said.
This appears to go bit further than what Google did, when it announced its plan to remove images from search results on request last month. Google’s web form posted July 9.
People could already report the offending images, but the reporting page will make the process easier. It is available now in English with other languages to come soon. Images will be removed globally, she said.
Microsoft Bing hovers at just over 20% of desktop Internet search market share in the U.S., according to the latest Comscore numbers. Google(GOOG) stands at about 64% share. On Microsoft’s earnings call Tuesday, the company’s chief executive officer Satya Nadella said he expects Bing to “transition to profitability” in the next fiscal year.
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