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link to www.niternat.com]
Like other technology and communications companies, Google regularly receives requests from government agencies and courts around the world to remove content from our services and hand over user data. Our Government Requests tool discloses the number of requests we receive from each government in six-month reporting periods with certain limitations.
Governments ask companies to remove content for many different reasons. For example, some content removals are requested due to allegations of defamation, while others are due to allegations that the content violates local laws prohibiting hate speech or pornography. Laws surrounding these issues vary by country, and the requests reflect the legal context of a given jurisdiction. We hope this tool will be helpful in discussions about the appropriate scope and authority of government requests.
These observations on content removal requests highlight some trends that we've seen in the data during each reporting period, and are by no means exhaustive.
January to June 2011↓
July to December 2010↓
January to June 2010↓
July to December 2009↓
January to June 2011
[China]
China
We received three requests to remove a total of 121 items from our services. We removed ads that violated our AdWords policies in response to two of those requests, but did not comply otherwise. We have withheld details about one request because we have reason to believe that the Chinese government has prohibited us from full disclosure.
YouTube was inaccessible in China during this reporting period.
[Cook Islands]
Cook Islands
For the first time, we received one or more content removal requests.
[France]
France
A single court order resulted in the removal of 180 items from Google Groups relating to a case of defamation against a man and his wife.
The number of user data requests we received increased by 27% compared to the previous reporting period.
[Germany]
Germany
The number of user data requests we received increased by 38% compared to the previous reporting period.
[India]
India
We received requests from state and local law enforcement agencies to remove YouTube videos that displayed protests against social leaders or used offensive language in reference to religious leaders. We declined the majority of these requests and only locally restricted videos that appeared to violate local laws prohibiting speech that could incite enmity between communities. In addition, we received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove 236 communities and profiles from orkut that were critical of a local politician. We did not comply with this request, since the content did not violate our Community Standards or local law.
[Libya]
Libya
All Google services were inaccessible in Libya during this time period.
[Norway]
Norway
Two requests resulted in the removal of 1814 items from AdWords for violating Norwegian marketing laws.
[Poland]
Poland
For the first time, we received one or more content removal requests.
[Russia]
Russia
For the first time, the number of user data requests reached the threshold for reporting.
[South Korea]
South Korea
Starting with the January-June 2011 reporting period, our counts of requests to remove content from Google's search products omit cases where the original content is no longer visible on the web, for instance, after the webmaster has removed it. (Such content may remain visible in Google’s search index for a while after the original disappears, as a cached copy or search snippet.) The drop in the number of items requested to be removed between 2010 and 2011 can be explained by this change. In addition, a request from the Korean Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) resulted in the removal of 441 ads that violated KFDA regulations.
The number of user data requests we received increased by 36% compared to the previous reporting period.
[Spain]
Spain
The number of user data requests we received increased by 28% compared to the previous reporting period.
[Sri Lanka]
Sri Lanka
For the first time, we received one or more content removal requests.
[Thailand]
Thailand
We received two requests from the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology in Thailand to remove 225 YouTube videos for allegedly insulting the monarchy in violation of Thailand's lèse-majesté law. We restricted Thai users from accessing 90% of the videos.
[Turkey]
Turkey
We received court orders and requests from the Telecommunications Communication Presidency of the Information and Communications Technologies Authority to remove YouTube videos and blogs that documented details about the private lives of political officials. We restricted Turkish users from accessing YouTube videos that appeared to violate local laws and removed the blogs for violating Blogger’s Terms of Service.
Blogger was partially inaccessible in Turkey during this time period.
[United Kingdom]
United Kingdom
The number of content removal requests we received increased by 71% compared to the previous reporting period.
[United States]
United States
We received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove YouTube videos of police brutality, which we did not remove. Separately, we received requests from a different local law enforcement agency for removal of videos allegedly defaming law enforcement officials. We did not comply with those requests, which we have categorized in this Report as defamation requests.
The number of content removal requests we received increased by 70% compared to the previous reporting period.
The number of user data requests we received increased by 29% compared to the previous reporting period.
July to December 2010
[Australia]
Australia
User data requests increased by ~72% compared to the previous reporting period because of a change in how Google categorized requests for data rather than an increase in the number of requests themselves.
[Brazil]
Brazil
During the Fall election period in Brazil, the number of court orders issued from electoral courts rose, ordering removal of content related to political campaigns. In addition, one court ordered removal of more than 11,500 photos from Picasa. The lawsuit alleged that the photos contained images of pages from copyrighted books.
[China]
China
During the period that Google's joint venture operated google.cn, its search results were subject to censorship pursuant to requests from government agencies responsible for Internet regulation. Chinese officials consider censorship demands to be state secrets, so we cannot disclose any information about content removal requests for the two reporting periods from July 2009 to June 2010.
As we announced in June 2010, users visiting the landing page on google.cn, now see a link to google.com.hk, (our Hong Kong site), where users can conduct web search or continue to use google.cn services like music and text translate, which we can provide locally without filtering.
Hence, beginning with the July - December 2010 reporting period, we disclose the number of content removal requests we receive from the Chinese government. (For that reporting period, we received no requests.)
YouTube was inaccessible in China during this reporting period.
[Croatia]
Croatia
For the first time, we received one or more content removal requests.
[Denmark]
Denmark
For the first time, we received one or more content removal requests.
[Hungary]
Hungary
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Last Edited by Phennommennonn on 04/28/2012 11:00 PM
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