--- go/src/cmd/link/internal/ld/lib.go
+++ go/src/cmd/link/internal/ld/lib.go
@@ -1391,30 +1391,6 @@
 			// Use lld to avoid errors from default linker (issue #38838)
 			altLinker = "lld"
 		}
-
-		if ctxt.Arch.InFamily(sys.ARM, sys.ARM64) && buildcfg.GOOS == "linux" {
-			// On ARM, the GNU linker will generate COPY relocations
-			// even with -znocopyreloc set.
-			// https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=19962
-			//
-			// On ARM64, the GNU linker will fail instead of
-			// generating COPY relocations.
-			//
-			// In both cases, switch to gold.
-			altLinker = "gold"
-
-			// If gold is not installed, gcc will silently switch
-			// back to ld.bfd. So we parse the version information
-			// and provide a useful error if gold is missing.
-			name, args := flagExtld[0], flagExtld[1:]
-			args = append(args, "-fuse-ld=gold", "-Wl,--version")
-			cmd := exec.Command(name, args...)
-			if out, err := cmd.CombinedOutput(); err == nil {
-				if !bytes.Contains(out, []byte("GNU gold")) {
-					log.Fatalf("ARM external linker must be gold (issue #15696), but is not: %s", out)
-				}
-			}
-		}
 	}
 	if ctxt.Arch.Family == sys.ARM64 && buildcfg.GOOS == "freebsd" {
 		// Switch to ld.bfd on freebsd/arm64.