14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has just joined the fight against revenge porn with a special form that allows victims to submit to the company the URLs they want to be removed from its servers.
The form asks the victims to fill in data such as names, URLs to be removed, information that applies in the content infringing privacy, but also to provide answers to a number of questions, such as if they agreed to the distribution of the photo or video.
For the moment, the form is only available in English, but Microsoft says that it’s already working to release it in some other languages, and this should happen in the coming weeks. All links are removed globally, so even if you fill a form in English, the content is removed from the whole Internet and not just from the English version of Bing.
More anti-revenge porn measures needed
Once your submission is approved, Microsoft removes links to photos and videos from Bing’s search results, but also access to the content itself if it’s shared on OneDrive or Xbox. But this doesn’t mean that the content will be removed from the whole Internet, because Microsoft can’t go further its services, so additional measures to fight revenge porn are needed.
“Clearly, this reporting mechanism is but one small step in a growing and much-needed effort across the public and private sectors to address the problem. It’s important to remember, for example, that removing links in search results to content hosted elsewhere online doesn’t actually remove the content from the Internet - victims still need stronger protections across the Web and around the world,” Microsoft explains.
Google also has its very own form for removing revenge porn links from its search engine and services, but tech companies should join their forces and create a unique tool that would help block these links on most major online services at once.