Google is now processing an unprecedented 1,500 DMCA takedown requests per minute, or more than 2 million takedown URL requests per day, according toGoogle's copyright transparency report.
Google first introduced their DMCA takedown service in 2011. Google processes each request, determining its validity, and if the request is deemed valid, removes the link from the search results. Owners of the links can then repeal the decision in order to reinstate the link.
While in 2011 Google only had to process a few hundred takedown requests per day, now in 2015, Google has to process more than 2 million requests in the same period.
This translates to more than 64.5 million URLs requested to be taken down in the past month, from 70,571 domains. Despite the high number of domains, a few bad actors are responsible for most of the requests, including Spanish MP3 download site flowxd.me who was single-handedly responsible for 1,467,424 URLs.
This escalating game of piracy "whack-a-mole" has critics on both sides of the fence, with some pointing to the futility of this kind of anti-piracy action as a reason for ending such actions, while rights-holders point to the same data as reason for Google to do more to make removals more permanent, including domain based blacklisting.
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