In recent years, thousands of women and girls have been coerced into sending sexually exploitative images and videos to predators online. Unless this non-consensual content and survivors’ personal information is swiftly deleted, women and girls are subjected to further harm or crimes, even when the original perpetrators are punished.

Many tech companies have improved their reporting systems to protect victims of sexual violence and exploitation online, but one of the world’s biggest, Google, isn’t moving fast enough. Not only is Google’s inadequate reporting system challenging to navigate, but it’s also inconsistent and hard to track. This has failed to deliver swift and transparent responses to survivors, meaning that their explicit photos stay online for longer against their permission, making their suffering worse.

The solution is simple – a better reporting system that responds to the needs of victims when abuse happens. But it’ll only happen if we demand it together. If we can pressure Google into improving its reporting system, we can help protect survivors of online sexual violence and prevent prolonged harm and anguish.

Call on Google to protect women and girls online from online sexual violence.

Google must ensure that online gender-based violence, including digital sex crimes, does not occur on its services and uphold its human rights policy.

We call on Google LLC to adopt a survivor-centered reporting system (for content removal) that prevents the spread of online gender-based violence and re-traumatization, is easy to access, navigate and check on, and provide effective and adequate human resources for establishing and implementing such a system, with employees fluent in local languages.

Kind regards,