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Copyright Content Removal Requests

Microsoft receives requests from around the world to remove access to content that is available online through one of our consumer products or services. Microsoft is providing details on Copyright requests during the period January 1 and June 30, 2024.
Download the current report

Copyright removal requests

As an intellectual property company itself, Microsoft encourages respect for intellectual property, including copyrights. We also are committed to freedom of expression and the rights of users to engage in uses that may be permissible under applicable copyright laws. Links to webpages containing material that infringes on the rights of copyright owners may be removed from our search results provided we receive a legally sufficient notice of infringement from an owner or an authorized agent acting on that owner’s behalf. The following numbers relate to requests to remove links to webpages from our Bing search engine results.

Copyright removal requests, January-June 2024

Requests
URLs requested
URLs accepted
URLs rejected
Percentage of URLs accepted
7,733,959
261,521,428
260,683,559
837,869
99.68%

Note: The data above details compliant removal requests received by Bing for removal of algorithmic search results. The report does not include copyright removal requests from (1) the Bing image or video index; (2) from Bing Ads; (3) removal requests for other online services, such as Outlook and Skype requests; or (4) requests initially deemed noncompliant during preliminary reviews conducted prior to entry of the request into our standard tracking tools. The data includes more than 95 percent of the copyright removal requests for Bing for the six-month reporting period. Removal requests for Bing represent about 99 percent of all copyright removal requests received.

Download previous Copyright Content Removal Request Reports

FAQs

  • The Copyright Removal Requests Report contains information on requests from copyright owners to Bing claiming infringement of protected works.

  • Yes, when search results are removed, Bing provides users with notice at the bottom of the relevant search results page. In the case of content that is filtered upon a search of a person’s name in response to a “right to be forgotten” request, the notice appears via link at the bottom of all search results pages in the applicable market(s).

  • If a publisher believes links to content have been removed incorrectly from Bing search results, the publisher may contact Bing with specific information about the URL at issue. We encourage publishers to contact Bing via our Webmaster Tools, which offers many helpful resources to publishers including easy access to our webmaster email support link.

  • As an intellectual property company itself, Microsoft encourages respect for intellectual property, including copyrights. We also are committed to freedom of expression and the rights of users to engage in uses that may be permissible under applicable copyright laws. Links to webpages containing material that infringes on the rights of copyright owners may be removed from our search results provided we receive a legally sufficient notice of infringement from an owner or an authorized agent acting on that owner’s behalf. If you need to report copyright infringement to Microsoft, we recommend using our Notices of Infringement online reporting tools.

  • They are not included in this report, but we're working to include them in future reports. However, these volumes are relatively low, and the data for this report includes more than 95 percent of the copyright removal requests for Bing for the six-month reporting period.

  • The reporting organization is the individual or organization who sends us a copyright removal notice. This may be the rightsholder or an individual or organization submitting a notice on the rightsholder’s behalf. The copyright owner is the individual or organization listed on the copyright removal notice as the copyright owner. Finally, the domain refers to the top-level domain for the URL(s) identified in the copyright removal notice. For example, if we received a copyright removal notice for the URL http://www.website.com/infringingURL, the domain would be website.com. This data is based on information we receive from copyright holders or the individuals or organizations submitting on their behalf when they submit notices, and represents notices received within the six-month reporting period.
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