Google receives more than 2 million requests to remove copyright-infringing links every day

The number of pirated links that Google receives every day is growing rapidly.

According to the latest information published by Google in its Transparency Report, the search giant received 66,318,159 requests to remove links last month. If Google approves a takedown request (when it discovers that the shared content is infringing on copyright), the service will remove the said link from its search results. The website containing the infringing link will not be affected, but it will lose a large amount of traffic from Google's search results.

Over the years, the number of requests to remove infringing links that Google receives has steadily increased. In November 2012, Google received 2.2 million requests per week to remove infringing links. Today, that number has increased to 2.2 million requests per day. On average, Google receives 92,000 requests per hour to remove infringing links. That’s 1,500 requests per minute.

Last month's 66 million link takedown requests were directed at 71,000 websites and were made by 5,500 copyright owners and 2,500 copyright protection organizations.

The number of requests to remove infringing links (per week) that Google receives has been increasing continuously over the past 3 years.

Now, link takedown requests aren't Google's only way to combat copyright infringement. The service's search results algorithm also demotes sites that contain infringing content, causing them to appear lower in the results and thus suffer a significant hit to traffic.

According to VnReview