DuckDuckGo (DDG) is an internet search engine. DuckDuckGo removes search results and emphasizes protecting the privacy of the user. The browser tries to avoid the filter bubble which leads to personalized search results. DDG also doesn’t show content farms as a result. It uses the APIs of various other websites to show us quick results. Moreover, for traditional links, it uses Bing and its crawler. The crackdown on dodgy content of DuckDuck go extends to bootleggers. TorrentFreak has also noted that the search list of DDG no longer lists results from pirated websites. The list also includes The Pirate Bay, Fmovies, and 1337x. If you try to search anything from their domain you will come up with an empty-handed result list on the browser. Streaming sites such as Flixtor and 2conv also produce zero results.
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DuckDuckGo removes search results
However, other pirated sites such as RarBG also turn up only one result instead of thousands and thousands of what we used to see elsewhere.The site that was widely used to download youtube videos, YouTube-dl also produces no result. Though YouTube-dl has recently defended its legality, DDG still doesn’t support it. There are mixed opinions related to YouTube-dl. The RIAA portrays YouTube-dl as a piracy tool, while others such as GitHub, and Electronic Frontier Foundation don’t find YouTube-dl ripping DRM- protected material.
When asked for comment from DuckDuckGo, TorrentFreak says that they blocked or don’t support pirated sites because copyright violation is an issue. It is a liability for the browser. The company has removed the pirate “bangs” which are the shortcuts for pirate sites, a long time back in 2018. Competitor browsers like Google and Microsoft Edge are also downranking results related to piracy. Companies avoid showing pirated content because copyright cases are a liability to the company. On the internet, digital content or any kind of content contains copyrights. When you go against the copyright policies you have to fight copyright infringement battles.
Final Note
The infringement of copyright is an important issue in the age of information. You see information everywhere, you want to store and share information. In this sharing of information many times the copyright policies get infringe. Especially in content writing, copyright is a big thing. DuckDuckGo’s step to remove pirated content from the browser is a good step. It will help the browser to reduce the risk of being involved in costly battles of copyright.
