Google is trying to make it harder to stream pirated video

Google, Facebook and Twitter could soon prevent you from searching for illegal content thanks to new European laws.

This means that search for results for queries like “free stream Game of Thrones season 5” might soon completely vanish from Google.

When the laws come into force, it will become very difficult to find links to websites that are beaming out free television or films unless you know the exact URL.

There’s currently a fierce debate raging about whether pirated material should be removed or if censoring it in this way will impinge on free speech.

Popular series are typically quite easy to find online, thanks to pirate websites that either allow you to stream the shows or download them at no cost.

Gadgets called “Kodi boxes” that allow you to watch these free streams on your TV have grown in popularity, but companies like Sky are trying to shut them down.

Draft EU guidelines seen by Reuters suggest that they will pay people called “trusted flaggers” to snitch on the sites when they appear so they can be quickly removed.

“Online platforms need to significantly step up their actions to address this problem,” the draft EU guidelines say.

“They need to be proactive in weeding out illegal content, put effective notice-and-action procedures in place and establish well-functioning interfaces with third parties (such as trusted flaggers) and give a particular priority to notifications from national law enforcement authorities.”

The guidelines will be published before October but for now, there’s no suggestion that they will force Google to remove sites that share films for free.

A spokesman for Twitter had no comment on the draft but pointed to the company’s latest data on its efforts to tackle abuse showing it was taking action on ten times the number of abusive accounts every day compared to the same time last year.

Facebook and Google declined to comment.