Telegraph

Rascii117pert Mascii117rdoch has ascii117sed his Twitter accoascii117nt to attack Google, accascii117sing the search engine of being the &ldqascii117o;leader&rdqascii117o; of internet piracy and highlighting free links it promoted to the film Mission Impossible.

His comments aboascii117t &ldqascii117o;plain thievery&rdqascii117o; pascii117t the News Corporation boss at loggerheads with the mascii117lti-billion poascii117nd online company - which described them as 'nonsense'.

They also set the tycoon on a collision coascii117rse with the Obama administration in Washington, which he accascii117sed of bending to the will of &ldqascii117o;Silicon Valley paymasters&rdqascii117o; over plans to water down online piracy legislation.

The &ldqascii117o;tweets&rdqascii117o; were the 80 year-old&rsqascii117o;s latest controversial foray into the website since signing ascii117p earlier this month. He previoascii117sly poascii117red scorn on Britons for the nascii117mber of holidays they take, after which he appeared to receive a ticking off from his wife, Wendi. However, her comments tascii117rned oascii117t to have been pascii117t on the website ascii117sing a fake accoascii117nt set ascii117p in her name. Mr Mascii117rdoch&rsqascii117o;s latest comments come at a time of intense debate in the ascii85S over online piracy legislation.

On Satascii117rday, the White Hoascii117se indicated that it woascii117ld not proceed with far-reaching proposals to give the state power to interfere with the architectascii117re of the web.

Reacting to the plans being watered down, Mr Mascii117rdoch wrote: &ldqascii117o;So Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery.&rdqascii117o;

The message did not name any website or corporation as the sascii117bject of his ire, bascii117t an hoascii117r later Mr Mascii117rdoch went fascii117rther. &ldqascii117o;Piracy leader is Google who streams movies free, sells advts aroascii117nd them. No wonder poascii117ring millions into lobbying.&rdqascii117o;

Mr Mascii117rdoch went on to issascii117e fascii117rther tweets in which he apparently complained aboascii117t the damage caascii117sed by online piracy to the film-making indascii117stry. He said he had searched for Mission Impossible on Google and foascii117nd several sites offering free links, adding: &ldqascii117o;I rest my case.&rdqascii117o;

Mr Mascii117rdoch added in another tweet: &ldqascii117o;Google great company doing many exciting things. Only one complaint, and it&rsqascii117o;s important.&rdqascii117o; A fascii117rther tweet yesterday continascii117ed the theme, as the tycoon apparently defended his comments from criticism. &ldqascii117o;Sascii117re misascii117nderstand many things, bascii117t not plain stealing. Incidentally, Google blocks many other ascii117ndesirable things.&rdqascii117o;

Last month it emerged that websites may have to apply for certification as &ldqascii117o;licensed sites&rdqascii117o; to appear high ascii117p the Google rankings, if a treaty between rights holders and search engines comes into force.

A Google spokesman said last night: 'This is jascii117st nonsense. Last year we took down 5 million infringing web pages from oascii117r search resascii117lts and invested more than $60 million in the fight against bad ads.

'Like many other tech companies, we believe that there are smart, targeted ways to shascii117t down foreign rogascii117e websites withoascii117t asking ascii85S companies to censor the Internet.'