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 or to review such content to determine if it should be removed for inconsistency with a product's community policies. 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 or review 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 adult content. 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.
Summary of All Requests
By Reporting Period
All Requests
Court Orders
Executive, Police, etc.
By Reason (since July 2010)
Court Orders
Executive, Police, etc.
Notable Observations – July to December 2012
Afghanistan
A Google product or service was disrupted during this time period:
- We received a request to remove a YouTube video that allegedly defames the President by depicting her in a compromising position. We age-restricted the video in accordance with YouTube's Community Guidelines.
- We received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos that contain clips of the movie, "Innocence of Muslims": Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Australia, Egypt, and the United States requested that we review the videos to determine if they violated our Community Guidelines, which they did not. The other 17 countries requested that we remove the videos. We restricted videos from view in Indonesia, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey. Due to difficult circumstances, we temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and Libya. We received a request from a local transportation agency to remove 119 YouTube videos for using a protected trademark without permission. We removed the videos.
- We received a court order from an individual that was addressed to a third party. We removed 124 search results from the google.at domain that we determined to fall within the scope of the order.
- We received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos that contain clips of the movie, "Innocence of Muslims": Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Australia, Egypt, and the United States requested that we review the videos to determine if they violated our Community Guidelines, which they did not. The other 17 countries requested that we remove the videos. We restricted videos from view in Indonesia, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey. Due to difficult circumstances, we temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and Libya.
-
A Google product or service was disrupted during this time period:
-
We received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos that
contain clips of the movie, "Innocence of Muslims": Australia,
Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran,
Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia,
Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States.
Australia, Egypt, and the United States requested that we review the
videos to determine if they violated our Community Guidelines, which
they did not. The other 17 countries requested that we remove the
videos. We restricted videos from view in Indonesia, India, Jordan,
Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey. Due to difficult
circumstances, we temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and
Libya. We received 316 requests for the removal of 756 distinct
pieces of content related to alleged violations of the Brazilian
Electoral Code during the 2012 Brazilian Elections. Google removed
content in response to 35 final court decisions. Google is exercising
its right of appeal provided under Brazilian law in the other cases, on
the basis that the content is protected by freedom of expression under
the Brazilian Constitution.
We received a request from a federal prosecutor to remove five blog posts and four search results linking to blog posts that allegedly defame him by accusing him of incompetence and corruption. We did not remove content in response to this request.
We received a request from a city attorney to remove a blog that allegedly defames him by accusing him of corruption. We did not remove the blog.
We received a request from one judge to remove a blog that allegedly defamed him by referencing or linking to accusations of corruption, and a similar request from a different judge to remove a search result. We did not remove the blog or the search result.
We received a court order signed by a judge that ordered us to remove two blog posts, one of which was critical of the judge that signed the order. We appealed the order and the case is still pending. - The number of content removal requests we received increased by 265% compared to the previous reporting period.
- We received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos that contain clips of the movie, "Innocence of Muslims": Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Australia, Egypt, and the United States requested that we review the videos to determine if they violated our Community Guidelines, which they did not. The other 17 countries requested that we remove the videos. We restricted videos from view in Indonesia, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey. Due to difficult circumstances, we temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and Libya.
- We received a court order from a company that was directed at a third party to remove 242 search results and an AdWords ad that linked to websites advertising goods that were allegedly made using the company's trade secrets. We removed 242 search results and the ad, which we determined to fall within the scope of the order.
-
3 Google products or services were disrupted during this time period:
- We received a request from local law enforcement to remove two YouTube videos for criticizing a foreign ambassador. A legal basis for removal was not provided. We did not remove the videos.
- We received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos that contain clips of the movie, "Innocence of Muslims": Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Australia, Egypt, and the United States requested that we review the videos to determine if they violated our Community Guidelines, which they did not. The other 17 countries requested that we remove the videos. We restricted videos from view in Indonesia, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey. Due to difficult circumstances, we temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and Libya.
- We received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos that contain clips of the movie, "Innocence of Muslims": Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Australia, Egypt, and the United States requested that we review the videos to determine if they violated our Community Guidelines, which they did not. The other 17 countries requested that we remove the videos. We restricted videos from view in Indonesia, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey. Due to difficult circumstances, we temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and Libya.
- We received a request from the leader of a regional government entity to remove a blog post that criticized aspects of his judicial career. We did not remove content in response to this request.
- We received a request from a law enforcement agency to remove a YouTube video that allegedly depicts state symbols in a disparaging way. We did not remove the video. We received a request from the youth protection agency Jugendschutz.net to remove 135 YouTube videos for allegedly violating the German Children and Young Persons Act as well as other local laws. We restricted 34 of the videos from view in Germany in accordance with local laws and removed one of the videos for violating our Community Guidelines.
- In response to a court order, we removed a blog post from the blogspot.gr domain that allegedly defamed a retired millitary officer accused of business gain through political ties, including ties to a former Prime Minister of Greece.
- We received a request from a political party to remove a YouTube video that allegedly infringed their copyrights. The video was of a speech given by a member of another party, protesting a recommendation from the complaining party to single out Jewish members of Parliament. We did not remove the video.
-
We received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos that
contain clips of the movie, "Innocence of Muslims": Australia,
Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran,
Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia,
Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States.
Australia, Egypt, and the United States requested that we review the
videos to determine if they violated our Community Guidelines, which
they did not. The other 17 countries requested that we remove the
videos. We restricted videos from view in Indonesia, India, Jordan,
Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey. Due to difficult
circumstances, we temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and
Libya. During the period of disturbance in the North-East region, we
received five requests from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team
to remove content from Google+, a Blogger blog, 64 YouTube videos, and
1759 comments associated with some YouTube videos, that cited laws
covering disruption of public order or ethnic offence laws. The Google+
URLs were only links to search results that did not identify specific
posts that violated applicable law. In response to these requests, we
removed one video for violating our YouTube Community Guidelines. We
also restricted 47 Youtube Videos from local view, in addition to
removing 12 YouTube comments and disabling local access to 3 Blogger
blog posts that violated local laws.
We received a court order addressed to a third party to remove 247 search results for linking to websites that allegedly violated an individual's privacy. We did not remove the search results because we were unable to determine their relationship to the court order. We requested clarification but did not receive a reply.
We received a request from a city Cyber Crime Investigation Cell to remove current depictions of disputed borders of Jammu and Kashmir in five Google Maps domains other than maps.google.co.in. We did not change our depiction of the borders in response to this request. - The number of content removal requests we received increased by 90% compared to the previous reporting period.
- We received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos that contain clips of the movie, "Innocence of Muslims": Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Australia, Egypt, and the United States requested that we review the videos to determine if they violated our Community Guidelines, which they did not. The other 17 countries requested that we remove the videos. We restricted videos from view in Indonesia, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey. Due to difficult circumstances, we temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and Libya.
- We received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos that contain clips of the movie, "Innocence of Muslims": Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Australia, Egypt, and the United States requested that we review the videos to determine if they violated our Community Guidelines, which they did not. The other 17 countries requested that we remove the videos. We restricted videos from view in Indonesia, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey. Due to difficult circumstances, we temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and Libya.
-
3 Google products or services were disrupted during this time period:
- We received a request from legal representatives of a member of the executive branch to remove two YouTube videos for alleged defamation. We did not remove the videos. We received a request from a member of the judicial administration to remove search results that allegedly violate section 255 of the Israeli Penal Law that deals with contempt of the court by linking to content that is critical of Israeli judges, as well as results which allegedly violate section 70(f) of the Courts Law and section 24(a)1 of the Minors' Protection and Treatment Law by linking to content which allegedly infringes statutory gag orders. We requested additional information but did not receive a reply.
- We received a request from member of a city government to remove a YouTube video that allegedly violates his privacy because it includes an image of his face on a campaign poster. We did not remove the video. In response to a court order, we removed a blog post from the blogspot.it domain that allegedly defamed an individual by speculating that he was making a profit from charging the government fees for housing officials and was able to do so because of his association with certain politicians.
- We received a request from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to remove duplicate reviews of Japanese embassy listings in Google+ that related to the government's position on a political issue. We removed 2,558 reviews for violating our product policies.
- We received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos that contain clips of the movie, "Innocence of Muslims": Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Australia, Egypt, and the United States requested that we review the videos to determine if they violated our Community Guidelines, which they did not. The other 17 countries requested that we remove the videos. We restricted videos from view in Indonesia, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey. Due to difficult circumstances, we temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and Libya.
- We received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove five YouTube videos that allegedly violated the privacy of politicians by disclosing recorded conversations. We did not remove the videos.
- We received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos that contain clips of the movie, "Innocence of Muslims": Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Australia, Egypt, and the United States requested that we review the videos to determine if they violated our Community Guidelines, which they did not. The other 17 countries requested that we remove the videos. We restricted videos from view in Indonesia, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey. Due to difficult circumstances, we temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and Libya.
- We received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos that contain clips of the movie, "Innocence of Muslims": Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Australia, Egypt, and the United States requested that we review the videos to determine if they violated our Community Guidelines, which they did not. The other 17 countries requested that we remove the videos. We restricted videos from view in Indonesia, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey. Due to difficult circumstances, we temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and Libya.
- We received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos that contain clips of the movie, "Innocence of Muslims": Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Australia, Egypt, and the United States requested that we review the videos to determine if they violated our Community Guidelines, which they did not. The other 17 countries requested that we remove the videos. We restricted videos from view in Indonesia, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey. Due to difficult circumstances, we temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and Libya.
- We received two requests from two separate government officials to remove a blog and a YouTube video, respectively, that allegedly defame them by accusing them of corruption. We did not remove content in response to these requests.
- We received a court order directed at a third party to remove five blogs that allegedly defame a member of the police. We did not remove the blogs because we were unable to determine their relationship to the court order. We requested clarification but did not receive a reply.
Morocco
-
A Google product or service was disrupted during this time period:
- We received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos that contain clips of the movie, "Innocence of Muslims": Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Australia, Egypt, and the United States requested that we review the videos to determine if they violated our Community Guidelines, which they did not. The other 17 countries requested that we remove the videos. We restricted videos from view in Indonesia, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey. Due to difficult circumstances, we temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and Libya.
-
A Google product or service was disrupted during this time period:
- We received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos that contain clips of the movie, "Innocence of Muslims": Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Australia, Egypt, and the United States requested that we review the videos to determine if they violated our Community Guidelines, which they did not. The other 17 countries requested that we remove the videos. We restricted videos from view in Indonesia, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey. Due to difficult circumstances, we temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and Libya. We received 107 requests from the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications to remove 107 items from several different products for allegedly violating the Federal Law on Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection, for containing content related to suicide and drugs. We restricted content from local view in response to about one-third of the requests and removed content globally for violating our product policies in response to more than half of the requests.
- We received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos that contain clips of the movie, "Innocence of Muslims": Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Australia, Egypt, and the United States requested that we review the videos to determine if they violated our Community Guidelines, which they did not. The other 17 countries requested that we remove the videos. We restricted videos from view in Indonesia, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey. Due to difficult circumstances, we temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and Libya.
- We received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos that contain clips of the movie, "Innocence of Muslims": Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Australia, Egypt, and the United States requested that we review the videos to determine if they violated our Community Guidelines, which they did not. The other 17 countries requested that we remove the videos. We restricted videos from view in Indonesia, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey. Due to difficult circumstances, we temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and Libya.
-
We received a request to remove a YouTube video that allegedly defamed a presidential candidate. We did not remove the video.
We received several requests from the Korean Game Rating Board during this reporting period to remove 293 applications from Google Play according to Article 21 of the Act relating to the Promotion of the Game Industry. We removed 286 of the applications.
- In response to a court order issued by a judge in a provinicial court branch, we removed a blog post from the blogspot.es domain that allegedly defamed another judge in the same provincial court branch.
Syria
-
2 Google products or services were disrupted during this time period:
Tajikistan
-
A Google product or service was disrupted during this time period:
-
We received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos that
contain clips of the movie, "Innocence of Muslims": Australia,
Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran,
Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia,
Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States.
Australia, Egypt, and the United States requested that we review the
videos to determine if they violated our Community Guidelines, which
they did not. The other 17 countries requested that we remove the
videos. We restricted videos from view in Indonesia, India, Jordan,
Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey. Due to difficult
circumstances, we temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and
Libya. We received 17 requests from the Telecommunications
Communication Presidency of the Information and Communications
Technologies Authority to remove 63 YouTube videos and 22 Blogger blog
posts, all due to alleged criticism of Atatürk, the government or
national identity and values. We restricted Turkish users from accessing
52% of the YouTube videos. We did not remove content in response to the
requests relating to Blogger blog posts.
We received 16 requests based on a court order directed at a third party to remove 8,119 search results that linked to websites that allegedly contained copyright infringing material. We removed 6,851 search results, which we determined to fall within the scope of the order. -
A Google product or service was disrupted during this time period:
- We received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos that contain clips of the movie, "Innocence of Muslims": Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Australia, Egypt, and the United States requested that we review the videos to determine if they violated our Community Guidelines, which they did not. The other 17 countries requested that we remove the videos. We restricted videos from view in Indonesia, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey. Due to difficult circumstances, we temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and Libya.
-
We received a request from a Member of Parliament to remove a blog post
for suggesting that he advised businesses while serving in government.
We were not in a position to adjudicate on the facts so, with the MP's
consent, we passed the complaint on to the blogger. The content came
down although we did not remove it. We received a request from a
local law enforcement agency to remove a YouTube video that allegedly
defamed them by artificially portraying a member of the agency in a
racist uniform. We did not remove the video.
We received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove a YouTube video that was critical of police practices. We did not remove the video.
-
We received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos that
contain clips of the movie, "Innocence of Muslims": Australia,
Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran,
Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia,
Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States.
Australia, Egypt, and the United States requested that we review the
videos to determine if they violated our Community Guidelines, which
they did not. The other 17 countries requested that we remove the
videos. We restricted videos from view in Indonesia, India, Jordan,
Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey. Due to difficult
circumstances, we temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and
Libya. We received a request from a local government agency to remove
a YouTube video that allegedly defamed a school administrator. We did
not remove the video.
We received three separate requests from local law enforcement agencies to remove three YouTube videos that allegedly defamed police officers, public prosecutors or contained information about police investigations. We did not remove the videos.
In response to three court orders, we removed 771 items from Google Groups relating to a case of continuous defamation against a man and his family.
We received three different court orders from different individuals that were addressed to third parties, along with a request to remove 690 items from Google Groups, that allegedly contained defamatory statements. We asked for clarification but never received a reply.
We received three court orders from different individuals that were addressed to third parties, along with requests to remove 452 search results that linked to websites that allegedly contain defamatory content. We removed 70 search results that we determined to fall within the scope of the orders.
In response to a court order, we removed 119 search results that linked to websites allegedly hosting trademark infringing material.
No comments:
Post a Comment