Google will block more than 680 million URLs for copyright infringement in 2022, with nearly half blocked without ever being displayed.

In an effort to combat copyright infringement, Google removes content suspected of copyright infringement from Google search results. According to a letter from Goggle to the United States Patent and Trademark Office at the end of August 2023, Goggle has often been able to block illegal content without ever appearing in search results, and blocked content only in 2022. It is reported that there are about 680 million cases.

Google Preemptively Banned Hundreds of Millions of 'Pirate' URLs Last Year * TorrentFreak

https://torrentfreak.com/google-preemptively-banned-hundreds-of-millions-of-pirate-urls-last-year-230903/

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in force in the United States, Internet service providers who have been sued for infringement by copyright holders are required to delete the corresponding content. Most of the copyright removal requests processed by Google are based on the DMCA, with an average of about 3 million per day and links to URLs containing illegal content exceeding 7 billion in total by 2022. It has been. Also, it is clear that it will be deleted not only from Google search results but also from other Google services such as Google's bookmark function ' Collection '.

Google reflects ``DMCA deletion request sent to Google search'' to another Google service-GIGAZINE

When a DMCA deletion request is made, the corresponding URL is deleted from the search engine index, the link to illegal content is deleted, and the domain that received the deletion notification is 'degraded' as a search result. This will lower your ranking. Google reports that demoted sites tend to lose 89% of clicks from searches. In addition, links that are not indexed by search engines will be removed as well, in which case the URL will be blocked from appearing in future search results and all additional deterrence measures will be taken. We'll do it,' explains Caleb Donaldson, Google's copyright attorney.

Such `` URL deletion before being displayed in the search index '' is called `` preemptive deletion '', and according to the letter (PDF file) that Google responded to the US Patent and Trademark Office survey, More than 40% of deletions submitted via web forms in 2022 were due to preemptive deletions. A letter submitted by Google states, ``As of 2022, we are dealing with over 680 million URLs, 40% of which have never appeared in our search results.'' .

Also, going further from the URL of illegal content not included in the search index, we are also accepting requests to delete content that has not yet infringed copyright. For example, during popular live streaming such as soccer World Cup and mixed martial arts, pirated sites often create websites in advance and announce illegal streaming. In those cases, we allow these sites to be taken offline even before streaming has started and piracy has taken place.

In a letter, Google said, ``For more than 20 years, we have observed that 'unmet consumer demand is a major factor in piracy.' Failure to do so will result in users seeking pirated content, which is why one of the best ways to combat piracy is to provide better, more convenient and legitimate alternatives. The availability of legal content is the key to anti-piracy strategies,' emphasizing new anti-piracy measures for the future.