Google’s Pirate Update hurts torrent sites

A report released by JustWatch has revealed that Google’s “Pirate Update” has resulted in a massive decrease in the visibility of torrent sites in search results.

According to an article by TorrentFreak, the algorithm changes did not have the same effect on illegal streaming sites, though.

The article stated that the anti-piracy move by Google was in response to pressure from the entertainment industry to help fight copyright infringement.

“Last year, Google made changes to its core algorithms aimed at lowering the visibility of pirate sites. Using the number of accurate DMCA requests as an indicator, these sites are now demoted in search results for certain key phrases,” stated the article.

Data on the top 20 pirate sites, including The Pirate Bay, KickassTorrents, and Torrentz, shows that their search engine visibility has decreased by up to 50% in some cases – since the update was launched late in 2014.

Illegal streaming portals appear to be unaffected by the algorithm change.

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