Several victims of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the US government and Google after their identities were mistakenly revealed in documents released online by the US Department of Justice. In January, the department uploaded over three million files related to the investigation into the fallen financier, including his connections to prominent figures.
However, the documents included names of victims who were supposed to remain anonymous. “The Department of Justice ‘revealed the identities of approximately 100 victims of the convicted sex offender, by publishing their private information and identifying them to the world,’ the complaint filed in a San Francisco court said.
“A new trauma”
“Even after the government acknowledged that this disclosure violated the rights of the victims and removed the information, online actors like Google continue to republish them, refusing the victims’ requests to delete them,” lamented the complainants. Google continues to display the victims’ personal information in search results and in content generated by AI, according to the complaint.
Journalists from The New York Times also found dozens of photos of naked individuals in these files, where their faces were visible.
“The victims are now facing a new trauma. Strangers are calling them, sending them emails, jeopardizing their physical safety, and accusing them of being accomplices of Epstein when in reality, they were Epstein’s victims,” the complaint emphasized.
