Government - Google Transparency Report

Government Google Transparency Report
http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/government/
Transparency Report
Like other technology and communications companies, Google regularly receives requests from government agencies and courts around the world to remove content from our services. In this report, we disclose the number of requests we receive from each government in six-month 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.
July to December 2011
Brazil
In December, we received an electoral court order that resulted in the removal of four orkut profiles for content related to political campaigns.
Canada
We received a request from the Passport Canada office to remove a YouTube video of a Canadian citizen urinating on his passport and flushing it down the toilet. We did not comply with this request.
China
YouTube was inaccessible during this reporting period, beginning on March 23, 2009. [Source: New York Times]
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Germany
A court order resulted in the removal of 898 search results that linked to forums and blogs containing statements about a government agency and one of its employees that the court determined were not credible. We received a request to remove 70 YouTube videos for allegedly violating the German Children and Young Persons Act. We restricted some of the videos from view in Germany in accordance with local laws.
India
The number of content removal requests we received increased by 49% compared to the previous reporting period.
Iran
Google Videos was inaccessible during this reporting period, beginning on January 30, 2011. YouTube was inaccessible during this reporting period, beginning on June 13, 2009. [Source: ONI]
Libya
All Google services were inaccessible during this reporting period, beginning on March 3, 2011.
Myanmar [Burma]
YouTube was inaccessible during this reporting period, and became accessible on August 26, 2011. [Source: Reuters]
Pakistan
We received a request from the Government of Pakistan's Ministry of Information Technology to
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remove six YouTube videos that satirized the Pakistan Army and senior politicians. We did not comply with this request.
Poland
We received a request from the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development to remove a search result that criticized the agency as well as eight more that linked to it. We did not comply with this request.
Spain
We received 14 requests from the Spanish Data Protection Authority to remove 270 search results that linked to blogs and sites referencing individuals and public figures. The Spanish Data Protection Authority also ordered the removal of three blogs published on Blogger and three videos hosted on YouTube. We did not comply with these requests.
Thailand
We received four requests from the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology in Thailand to remove 149 YouTube videos for allegedly insulting the monarchy in violation of Thailand's lse-majest law. We restricted 70% of these videos from view in Thailand in accordance with local law.
Turkey
We received a request from the Telecommunications Communication Presidency of the Information and Communications Technologies Authority to remove a YouTube video that contained hate speech and two other videos about Atatrk. We removed the video with hate speech for violating YouTube's Community Guidelines but did not comply with the rest of the request. In addition, we received two requests from the Telecommunications Communication Presidency of the Information and Communications Technologies Authority and a request from the Ankara Public Prosecutor of the Press Bureau to remove a total of seven YouTube videos, claiming that the videos violated law no. 5816 on crimes against Atatrk. We restricted Turkish users from accessing six of these videos.
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United Kingdom
We received a request from the UK's Association of Police Officers to remove five user accounts that allegedly promoted terrorism. We terminated these accounts because they violated YouTube's Community Guidelines, and as a result approximately 640 videos were removed.
United States
We received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove a blog because of a post that allegedly defamed a law enforcement official in a personal capacity. We did not comply with this request, which we have categorized in this Report as a defamation request. We received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove 1,400 YouTube videos for alleged harassment. We did not comply with this request. Separately, we received a request from a different local law enforcement agency to remove five user accounts that allegedly contained threatening and/or harassing content. We terminated four of the accounts, which resulted in the removal of approximately 300 videos, but did not remove the remaining account with 54 videos. We received a court order to remove 218 search results that linked to allegedly defamatory websites. We removed 25% of the results cited in the request. The number of content removal requests we received increased by 103% compared to the previous reporting period.
January to June 2011
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 during this reporting period, beginning on March 23, 2009. [Source: New York Times]
Egypt
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All Google services were inaccessible during this reporting period, beginning on January 27, 2011. [Source: Renesys]
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.
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.
Iran
Google Videos was inaccessible during this reporting period, beginning on January 30, 2011. YouTube was inaccessible during this reporting period, beginning on June 13, 2009. [Source: ONI]
Italy
We received a request from the Central Police in Italy to remove a YouTube video that satirized Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconis lifestyle. We did not comply with this request.
Libya
All Google services were inaccessible during this reporting period, beginning on March 3, 2011. All Google services were inaccessible during this reporting period, beginning on February 18,
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2011. YouTube was inaccessible during this reporting period, beginning on February 17, 2011.
Myanmar [Burma]
Norway
Two requests resulted in the removal of 1814 items from AdWords for violating Norwegian marketing laws.
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.
Syria
All Google services were inaccessible during this reporting period, beginning on June 2, 2011. [Source: Renesys] YouTube was inaccessible during this reporting period, and became accessible on February 8, 2011. [Source: BBC]
Thailand
We received two requests from the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology in
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Thailand to remove 225 YouTube videos for allegedly insulting the monarchy in violation of Thailand's lse-majest law. We restricted Thai users from accessing more than 90% of the videos.
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.
United Kingdom
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.
Brazil
During the October 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.
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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 during this reporting period, beginning on March 23, 2009. [Source: New York Times]
India
We received requests from different law enforcement agencies to remove a blog and YouTube videos that were critical of Chief Ministers and senior officials of different states. We did not comply with these requests. The number of content removal requests we received increased by 123% compared to the previous reporting period.
Iran
YouTube was inaccessible during this reporting period, beginning on June 13, 2009. [Source: ONI]
Italy
We received a request from the Central Police in Italy for removal of a YouTube video that criticized
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Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and simulated his assassination with a gun at the end of the video. We removed the video for violating YouTube's Community Guidelines.
Myanmar [Burma]
South Korea
The majority of the more than 32,000 individual items that Korean government agencies sought to be removed were search results on google.co.kr that contained RRNs. The number of content removal requests we received increased by 48% compared to the previous reporting period.
Syria
YouTube was inaccessible during this reporting period, and became accessible on February 8, 2011. [Source: BBC]
Thailand
We received a request from the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology in Thailand to remove 43 pieces of content because they were mocking or criticizing the king in violation of Thai lse-majest laws. We restricted Thai users from accessing these videos.
United Kingdom
The UK's Office of Fair Trading requested the removal of fraudulent ads that linked to scams. We complied with the request and removed 93,360 items in total.
United States
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Six court orders resulted in the removal of 1,110 items from Google Groups relating to a case of continuous defamation against a man and his family.
Vietnam
We received a request from the Vietnamese government to remove search results on a particular word that generated results that contained allegedly unflattering depictions of past Vietnamese leaders. We declined the request.
January to June 2010
Argentina
The courts in Argentina issued two orders that sought the removal of every search result mentioning a particular individual's name in association with a certain category of content. The number of search results at issue well exceeds 100,000 results. We did not attempt to approximate the number of individual items of content that might be encompassed by those two court orders. Google appealed those orders.
Brazil
More than 50% of content removal requests related to orkut. Atypically, in a non-orkut-related lawsuit, one court ordered removal of more than 18,000 photos from Picasa. The lawsuit alleged that the photos contained images of pages from copyrighted books. The number of content removal requests we received increased by 37% compared to the previous reporting period.
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.
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YouTube was inaccessible during this reporting period, beginning on March 23, 2009. [Source: New York Times]
Germany
A substantial number of German removal requests resulted from court orders that related to defamation in search results.
Iran
Kazakhstan
We received a request from a local ministry in Kazakhstan to remove the YouTube channel for a TV channel supportive of the opposition. We did not comply with this request.
Libya
We received 147 requests to remove more than 1,000 YouTube videos. We removed the a portion of the videos for violating YouTube's Community Guidelines but did not comply with the rest of the requests. YouTube was inaccessible during this reporting period, beginning on January 23, 2010. [Source: Global Voices]
Morocco
Google Earth was inaccessible during this reporting period, beginning on August 4, 2009. [Source: Sahara Press Service]
Myanmar [Burma]
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Pakistan
YouTube was inaccessible during this reporting period, beginning on May 20, 2010. [Source: CNN]
South Korea
The majority of the more than 15,000 individual URLs that Korean government agencies sought to be removed were search results on google.co.kr that contained RRNs. The number of content removal requests we received increased by 47% compared to the previous reporting period.
Spain
Syria
Argentina
A federal prosecutor claimed that information about him and his wife (a federal judge) had been posted for analysis on two political blogs and asked that we remove them. We removed a portion of one of the blogs for revealing private information about the judge, but otherwise did not comply because it did not violate our internal policies.
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Brazil
The majority of the Brazilian requests for removal of content from orkut related to alleged impersonation or defamation.
Canada
We received a request from a Canadian politician to remove a blog criticizing his policies. We declined to remove the blog because it did not violate our policies.
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. YouTube was inaccessible during this reporting period, beginning on March 23, 2009. [Source: New York Times]
Germany
A substantial number of German removal requests resulted from court orders that related to defamation in search results. Approximately 11% of the German removal requests are related to pro-Nazi content or content advocating denial of the Holocaust, both of which are illegal under German law.
India
In the last half of 2009, the majority of Indian requests for removal of content from orkut related to alleged impersonation or defamation.
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Iran
Morocco
Google Earth was inaccessible during this reporting period, beginning on August 4, 2009. [Source: Sahara Press Service]
Myanmar [Burma]
Syria
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Government Google Transparency Report

July to December 2011