Google pledge sees plummet in piracy website visibility

Search results for websites hosting copyright infringing content have dropped by up to 98% since Google introduced measures to clamp down on piracy rich sites.

The visibility of websites including movie4k.to, piratebay.se and isohunt.to has been affected by Google’s recent pledge to alter its search results for free music and films.

The figures were published on Sunday (October 26) by digital marketing company Searchmetrics.

Earlier this month, Google said its new plans would “visibly affect the rankings of some of the most notorious sites” hosting copyright infringing content.

The latest policy change by the search engine means that any website successfully issued with a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice will have its search engine optimisation visibility limited.

Such websites are now harder to find when users type in phrases like “free movie downloads”, “watch movies online free” and “watch free movies”.

Google previously promised to take action in 2012 but that move has since been criticised after the company was accused of not following through on its pledge.