Google, on Thursday, has released its 2013 report showing a significant increase on the number of requests for content removal that the company has received from the government.
The Transparency Report, which began in 2010, offers evidence of how policies and laws affect access to data online and for over the past four years, one customary activity has remained standing still: the government's requests to remove political contents.
The blog spot stated: "Judges have asked us to remove information that's critical of them, police departments want us to take down videos or blogs that shine a light on their conduct, and local institutions like town councils don't want people to be able to find information about their decision-making processes." Pointing out that those posts containing any of that could go against laws of privacy, defamation, and even copyright.
The report also revealed that the company has received 3,846 government requests to delete 24,737 pieces of content during the first half of 201-- a 68 percent increase compared to the second half of 2012.
Additionally, in this exact reporting period, Google said it has received 93 requests to delete contents that criticize the government. The company approved 33 percent of it. Four of those requests were said to violate copyrights laws.
Further notes include a sudden increase from Turkey where 1,673 requests from the country's authorities to remove contents from Google's platforms were submitted. This is roughly 10 times greater than the second half of 2012. About two-thirds of the received requests ask for the deletion of 1,345 pieces of content allegedly related to the violation of law 5651 – a law on "Regulating Broadcasting in the Internet and Fighting against Crimes Committed through Internet Broadcasting."
The Internet giant said: "While the information we present in our Transparency Report is certainly not a comprehensive view of censorship online, it does demonstrate a worrying upward trend in the number of government requests, and underscores the importance of transparency around the processes governing such requests. As we continue to add data, we hope it will become increasingly useful and informative in policy debates and decisions around the world."
