Survivors of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein sued the US government and Google on Thursday over victims’ identities being mistakenly revealed in a trove of documents published online by the Justice Department (DOJ).
The DOJ released more than three million files in January related to the investigation into the disgraced financier, including his links to high-profile figures.
But officials were left scrambling after names of victims — who were supposed to be anonymized — were left unredacted.
The DOJ “outed approximately 100 survivors of the convicted sexual predator, publishing their private information and identifying them to the world,” the plaintiffs said.
“Even after the government acknowledged the disclosure violated the rights of the survivors and withdrew the information, online entities like Google continuously republish it, refusing victim’s pleas to take it down,” they added.
Google continues to display victims’ personal information in search results and AI-generated content, the case says.
Journalists at the New York Times also found dozens of naked photos in the files that included people’s faces.
Epstein was convicted in 2008 of soliciting sex from girls as young as 14, but died in a New York jail cell in 2019 before he could be tried on sex trafficking charges.
“Survivors now face renewed trauma. Strangers call them, email them, threaten their physical safety, and accuse them of conspiring with Epstein when they are, in reality, Epstein’s victims,” the case filing said.
Plaintiffs claim that the government violated the Privacy Act of 1974, and that Google violated California laws on invasion of privacy, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and unlaw business practices.
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