Google helped direct online users to Jessica Brown Findlay sex tape

GOOGLE search engine helped direct internet users to a sex tape of a TV actress which had been stolen from her Apple iCloud account.

GOOGLE search engine helped direct internet users to a sex tape of a TV actress which had been stolen by a hacker from her Apple iCloud account.

A link to the explicit sex tape featuring Jessica Brown Findlay, who played Lady Sybil in Downton Abbey, appeared on the first page of searches for the actress.

Findlay, 24, is understood to be distraught after three clips of her naked were apparently stolen from her Apple iCloud account — one of around 100 female celebrities who have had dozens of intimate and often nude pictures and videos stolen by hackers and put online.

The videos have now been viewed more than a million times online.

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Stolen sex tape ... Actress Jessica Brown Findlay. Picture: Getty

In the face of mounting pressure Google finally took action — but only after one 54-second video had been available via its search engine for at least eight hours.

“Searches for ‘Jessica Brown Findlay’ no longer deliver the video on the front page, which should limit its exposure,” a Google spokesman said.

In a separate move, the website that had hosted the video posted a message saying: “This video has been suspended either due to a copyright claim, or for breaching the terms of use.”

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Not so haughty after all ... Jessica Brown Findlay as Lady Sybil with Allen leach as Branson in Downton Abbey.

Apple has confirmed that some celebrity iCloud accounts had been deliberately targeted and hacked.

Last night it said none of the cases it had so far investigated were a result of bugs in its iCloud or Find my iPhone systems, but were a result of a ‘very targeted attack’ on the security procedures of celebrity accounts.

It insisted there had not been a general security breach.

“After more than 40 hours of investigation, we have discovered that certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the internet,” a spokesman said.

“None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple’s systems including iCloud or Find my iPhone.

“We are continuing to work with law enforcement to help identify the criminals involved.”

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The FBI is investigating the leak which has left entertainers including actresses Jennifer Lawrence, Teresa Palmer and model Kate Upton powerless to stop the images of them in various stages of undress spreading around the web and being watched millions of times.

A spokesman for Brown Findlay said she is treating it as a ‘criminal matter’.

Google is classed as an “aggregator” rather than a “publisher” of material so it cannot be sued for providing links to offensive material.

CELEBRITY SEX TAPES