Pirate Bay, Kickass Torrents closed down: Bing, Google to keep pirate websites off top search results

An illustrated image of individuals browsing the internet.Pixabay/Rawpixel

Microsoft-powered search engine Bing and Google have sharpened their weapons for their war against piracy. Following accusations that they have been turning a blind eye to online piracy, the tech giants have now taken the lead in fighting to ban pirate websites off the front page of search results. Taking the hit are pirate websites such as Pirate Bay, Kickass Torrents, and many more.

An anti-piracy agreement has been announced after a meeting between Bing, Google, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the Motion Picture Association, and Alliance for IP, as reported on Torrent Freak, a publication that provides the latest news about privacy, copyright, and file sharing. Under the anti-piracy code, search engines are required to optimize their algorithms in order to keep out websites that have been committing copyright infringement from search results as much as possible, in order to make these harder to find.

Compliance with the anti-piracy code will be monitored by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), according to a report on The Telegraph. Speaking to the publication, Geoff Taylor, chief executive officer of the BPI, expressed that the code will not be a quick fix, but "it will mean that illegal sites are demoted more quickly from search results and that fans searching for music are more likely to find a fair site."

Record labels and film studios have long been campaigning for Microsoft and Google to help them win the war against piracy. In the next few months, those who want to download pirated content are expected to have a hard time searching for torrent websites on search engines like Bing and Google. The IPO is said to evaluate the performance of these search engines in demoting the links to pirate websites on June 1, according to Quartz. If they fail to comply with all the rules under the anti-piracy code, there may be sanctions and new laws may be imposed.