Revenge Porn Crackdown Across Bing and Xbox Live

Microsoft has granted victims of revenge porn the option to remove sexually explicit content of themselves from its cloud services.

The new powers come by way of an online form that allows users to report instances of sexually explicit photos or videos of themselves. The form also includes a section for users to include related documents including police reports and restraining orders.

As well as deleting offensive images from both OneDrive and Xbox Live, Microsoft is also willing to remove such material from Bing search results.

Microsoft's chief online safety office, Jacqueline Beauchere, detailed the new procedure in a blog post on Monday. "We want to help put victims back in control of their images and their privacy." Beauchere wrote.

"Revenge porn" is a term for the publication of sensitive, and usually explicit, images of a person's ex-partner. A recent report from UK police has shown that British Law enforcement is dealing with the largest volume of revenge porn allegations in its history.

It is not clear how Xbox Live is used to disseminate revenge porn, nor to what extent.

Microsoft is the latest in a long line of web-based companies taking measures to combat revenge porn. In March, social media site Twitter banned the practice, while internet giant Google took the decision to delist revenge porn results from its search engine.

As of writing, Microsoft's form has only so far been made available in English but, Beauchere explains, it will be expanded to other languages in the coming weeks.

“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.”