Due to several requests from copyright holders, Google has begun removing the European Union’s official website from search results on the continent. A recurring piracy problem has been plaguing the entity’s page, where scammers are exploiting the portal’s weaknesses. They use public-use tools to share files and advertise illegal versions of content.
The scheme has been a headache in the European Union for some time. The official portal of the institution allows users to publicly upload PDF files, almost always related to scientific research.
From there, criminals use this loophole to promote websites with pirated movies and serials, but in fact what they want is to infect the computers of the unsuspecting with various types of malware.
Platforms such as the European Union Nanomaterials Observatory (EUON) and the European Community of Adult Learning Professionals (EPALE) are some of the affected portals.
According to TorrentFreak, thousands of malicious PDF files have been found. They use keywords that include titles of successful movies and popular names of pirated websites such as 123movies and Fmovies. As soon as the person reads the ad and clicks on the available link, they are taken to a page full of viruses and the like.
Scams gain prominence in searches, but Google is removing
The truth is that scammers got it right when it came to search engine optimization (or SEO). With their forays through the European Union platform, they have managed to stand out on portals such as Google and Microsoft’s Bing.
For example, if a person searches for a movie in the Europe region with sayings like “watch movie online for free” (but in English, preferably), there’s a high chance that some of the pirated sites will appear at the top of the list.
One of the reasons this is working so well is that criminals use a page that many consider an authority, making it easier for search engines to suggest.
On the other hand, Google has received several notices of infringement by the DMCA, American legislation that deals with copyright on the internet. Because of this, the internet giant removed several mentions of the European Union portal from search results.
Entity responded
After the many complaints, a European Union spokesperson released a statement on the matter:
We identify the source of the incident. Platform stakeholders have already taken the necessary steps, such as removing suspicious files and blocking re-upload attempts. We are closely monitoring the situation and continue to scan websites for suspicious files. We cannot comment further on the ongoing investigations.
