The UK MPs have accused Google that it has failed to block websites offering illegal music and film downloads, which is reportedly costing the creative industries millions of pounds in lost revenue per year.
The UK Culture, Media and Sport select committee report criticised the search giant’s ‘derisory’ efforts to deal with online piracy saying that some of its activities were not justified.
MPs also allege that Google’s failure also endangered thousands of British jobs in the creative industries which claimed to have contributed £36bn per year to the country’s economy.
UK Culture, Media and Sport select committee chairman John Whittingdale said that the continuing promotion of illegal content through search engines is simply unacceptable and efforts to stop it have so far been derisory.
"There is no reason why they cannot demote and ultimately remove sites hosting large amounts of illegal material from search engine results," Whittingdale said.
"Google and others already work with international law enforcement to block for example child porn from search results and it has provided no coherent, responsible reason why it can’t do the same for illegal, pirated content.
"Copyright infringement is a serious crime that threatens our economic future."
According to a new report from the UK music regulator, the BPI, about 61% of the top 10 sites in a sample of Google searches for popular artists are for pirated material, that 63% in the previous year.
Google spokesperson said in a statement that the company has removed over 20 million links to pirated content from its search results in the August alone.
"But search is not the problem – according to Ofcom just 8% of infringers in the UK use Google to find unlicensed film and 13% to find unlicensed music," spokesperson added.
"Google works harder than anyone to help the film and music industry protect their content online."
