Microsoft asks to be removed from Google

Google has been asked to remove 100 million links over piracy concerns – including an odd request from Microsoft.

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, rights holders or their representatives can request Google removes links from search listings if they feature copyright infringing material.

However, not all of the requests are accurate. Microsoft uses a content rights management company called LeakID to file its takedown requests.

Acting on behalf of Microsoft, that company accidentally asked Google to remove links to its own websites, including URLs for its own store, according to a report from TorrentFreak.

Looking at the request, it appears to be a copy and paste error, with the “original work” links repeated in the list of “infringing URLs”.

Google caught the error and didn’t block the page, the report said, but noted other legitimate sites aren’t that lucky, saying its own research has uncovered dozens of examples.

Google’s most recent Transparency Report revealed that it’s had 100 million link takedown requests since January – double the number recorded last year.

The top two organisations making the requests were Degban, a rights protection firm that demands takedowns on behalf of its customers, and the BPI, the British music industry body.

In the past two years, Degban has requested 31 million links be removed, while the BPI has requested 26 million URLs be taken down.