Google comes out against blocks on DNS resolvers, VPNs, and IP addresses

Google has told the European Commission that blocking DNS, VPNs, or IP addresses is largely ineffecive and causes harm.

Google has told the European Commission that it is opposed to blocking piracy websites in Europe, explaining that it’s largely ineffective and causes harm. The company said that it is opposed to blocking DNS resolvers (Google owns 8.8.8.8), IP addresses, and VPNs; it claims that if one of these is blocked, alternative services can be used to bypass the block.

It also said that blocking these services doesn’t remove the content from the platforms at all, so doesn’t truly address the problem. In the case of blocking IP addresses, Google says that this leads to disproportionate outcomes because many licit services might be using the same IP address and then they get blocked too.

To back up this claim, it said that in December 2019, it began experiencing traffic disruptions in Portugal because local internet service providers (ISPs) blocked Google-hosted virtual IP addresses. This accidentally disrupted important Google services and cut off legitimate traffic for legitimate Google Cloud customers that shared the same virtual IPs or IP blocks.

Google’s arguments do have some merit, for example, in the UK when the Pirate Bay was blocked, it led to the creation of Pirate Bay proxy lists which gave you access to the website again. It is also unclear how you could realistically take down copyrighted materials being shared as a torrent as peers all around the world are hosting it and sharing it to other users.

What has actually dented piracy in the past is the arrival of cheap streaming services like Netflix and Spotify. These services gave users one central place to go to consume video and audio content. In the case of Netflix, however, other companies launched streaming services and Netflix has increased prices and introduced ads, making it a much less appealing proposition, which could push people back towards piracy.

Source: Google via EU

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Monday 13 July 2026 at 3:58 pm AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of June) 2,475

RIP Matrix