Sep 01, 2023 17:00:00

Google reflects ``DMCA deletion request sent to Google search'' to other Google services

To date, Google has processed over 7 billion copyright removal requests for its search engine,

Google Search . Most of these are deletion requests based on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which is the American law for copyrighted materials existing on the Internet. It has also been revealed that links that were requested to be deleted under the DMCA have been deleted from the 'Saved URL Collection'.

Google Removes 'Pirate' URLs from Users' Privately Saved Links * TorrentFreak
https://torrentfreak.com/google-removes-pirate-sites-from-users-privately-saved-links-230830/

For most people, the search engine they use when searching for something on the Internet is Google Search. Google owns the world's most used web browser , Chrome, which has Google Search set as its default search engine. Google search is also set as the default search engine in Safari, the standard browser for Apple devices such as the iPhone.

Google is legally required to respond to 'DMCA-based takedown requests sent to Google Search.' However, surprisingly, it has become clear that ``DMCA-based deletion requests'' affect not only Google search but also other Google services.

This was reported by software engineer Eddie Roosenmaallen . According to him, the link saved in Google's bookmarking feature `` Collection '' was deleted by Google because the link received a DMCA deletion request.

Google's 'Collection' is a Pinterest- like bookmarking function that can be used from the Google app or browser. You can save anything you find on the Internet, such as images or web pages, by pressing the save icon and check it out from your collection at any time.

In

the Google app , you can easily add items to your collection by tapping the mark at the top of the screen. Since the collection function in the Google app is treated the same as the bookmark function in other apps, there seems to have been some backlash such as ``It's weird that bookmarks are deleted without permission.''

Mr. Roosenmaallen, who was using this collection feature, reported that he received the following email from Google. The subject line of the email I received from Google was ``Moderation of items saved in your collection,'' and the text was ``The following items saved in your collection violate Google's policies.'' ``As a result, this item will be moderated.'' The moderation will be explained in ``If you share this collection... (links) will be hidden from all users who do.'

TorrentFreak, an overseas media outlet, said, ``We were able to reproduce this problem. We do not allow URLs that have been removed from searches to be 'saved' (in collections).'

Note that DMCA deletion requests in Google search apply to a single URL, so for example, 'thepiratebay.org' itself is displayed in Google search at the time of article creation, but ' thepiratebay.org/search.php? A deleted link like q=top100:48h_201 ” will not appear in Google Search and cannot be saved in collections.

TorrentFreak has asked Google whether this action is to prevent copyright infringement or to enforce Google's search policy, but there was no response at the time of writing the article.