Out-Law News 2 min. read
28 Oct 2011, 12:47 pm
In total UK content removal requests increased by 71% compared to the previous six-month period, Google said in its twice-yearly transparency report.
The Government raised no national security concerns between July and December 2010.
Google fully or partially complied with 82% of the Government's requests, the report said.
In total the UK Government requested the removal of 333 items including web search results, images and videos according to the figures.
It also asked for 61 videos to be removed for 'privacy and security' reasons, three for violence and one for hate speech. 20 videos were removed for 'other' reasons, according to the figures.
Google started publishing its Transparency Report last year. It outlines traffic patterns and disruptions to Google services, as well as providing details of content removal requests and requests for user data received from governments around the world.
Removal requests ask for the removal of content from Google search results or another one of the company's products, including YouTube, it said. Data requests ask for information about Google user accounts or products.
The company said it received 1,273 user data requests relating to 1,443 individual users. It fully or partially complied with 64% of those requests, it said.
A Home Office spokesperson told Out-Law.com that where unlawful online content was hosted in the UK, the police have the power to seek its removal. Where the content is hosted overseas, the Government works with its international partners to have the content removed.
"The government takes the threat of online extremist or hate content very seriously," the spokesperson said.
National governments asked Google to remove content for many different reasons including defamation allegations and breaches of local laws prohibiting hate speech or pornography, it said.
Google said that it did not comply with government requests which were not specific enough for the company to know what should be removed, or allegations of defamation through informal letters from government agencies.
"We generally rely on courts to decide is a statement is defamatory according to local law," it said.
Brazil made the most content removal requests, the report said. China only made three removal requests, each covering a large amount of data. Google was unable to disclose the details of one of those requests as it "had reason to believe" the Chinese government had prohibited disclosure, it said.
The search engine received a request from police in the US to remove videos it was alleged depicted acts of police brutality, it revealed.
"We received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove YouTube videos of police brutality, which we did not remove," it said.
"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 categorised in this Report as defamation requests."
Content removal requests from authorities in the US increased by 70% compared to the previous six-month period, it said. In addition, the US authorities made more than 11,000 requests for user data - a higher figure than any other country, the report said.