Google has officially submitted its formal opposition to a European Union proposal to block public DNS resolvers—including Google‘s widely used 8.8.8.8 service—to combat online piracy. The tech giant warned the European Commission that targeting core internet infrastructure is highly ineffective and risks causing massive collateral damage to legitimate websites in Europe and worldwide.
Why Google Opposes DNS and IP Blocking
According to Google, targeting DNS resolvers, VPNs, and shared IP addresses fails to address the root causes of piracy. Because pirate sites can easily switch to alternative domains or hosting services, these blockades do not actually remove any illegal content from the web.
Instead, the proposed blocking methods create severe risks for the broader internet ecosystem:
- Collateral Damage to Legitimate Sites: Because multiple websites often share the same IP address or server infrastructure, blocking an IP to stop one pirate stream can inadvertently take down thousands of unrelated, perfectly legal sites.
- Real-World Disruption: Google pointed to past blocking errors, such as Italy’s “Piracy Shield” system, which accidentally blocked access to Google Drive, school platforms, and ticketing services for over 12 hours.
- Easy Circumvention: Tech-savvy users and bad actors can bypass DNS restrictions in seconds by simply switching to a different DNS resolver, rendering the blocks useless.
A Call for Targeted, Legal Solutions
Rather than relying on broad, automated blocks that risk breaking crucial public web services, Google is urging the European Commission to prioritize direct content takedown requests at the source.
Under Google’s proposed framework, extreme measures such as infrastructure-level blocking should be used only as a last resort. The company argues that any future injunctions must be highly transparent, limited in duration, and issued only after copyright holders have proven that standard removal efforts failed. Additionally, the search giant suggests that the best way to curb digital piracy is not through restriction, but by providing consumers with simple, high-quality, and affordable legal alternatives.
