Dear Rupert: Google hits back at media mogul’s claims it breeds piracy

Google has rejected allegations made by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp in a letter to the European Commission that it uses its market position to stifle competition and is a platform for piracy and the spread of malicious networks.

In a response titled ‘Dear Rupert’, Google senior vice president of global communications Rachel Whetstone said the tech giant has done more than almost any other company to help tackle online piracy.

“In 2013 we removed 222 million web pages from Google Search due to copyright infringement,” said Whetstone.

“The average take-down time is now just six hours. And we downgrade websites that regularly violate copyright in our search rankings.”

“We’ve invested tens of millions of dollars in innovative technology – called ContentID – to tackle piracy on YouTube.”

Whetstone also pointed out Google is an industry leader in combatting child sexual abuse imagery online.

In its letter to the commission, News Corp said Google’s power makes it hard for people to “access information independently and meaningfully” and the company is “willing to exploit (its) dominant market position to stifle competition”.

But Whetstone said Google is not the gatekeeper to the web, as some have claimed.

“With the internet, people enjoy greater choice than ever before – and because the competition is just one click away online, barriers to switching are very, very low,” she said.