regulatory

Removal requests on the rise at Google

Google is reporting a 71 per cent increase in government and court requests in the UK to remove content from its services – including web search and YouTube. The figure accounts for the period between January and June, which saw 65 official requests for 333 items to be removed during that time. A home office spokesman told the BBC : “The government takes the threat of online extremist or hate content very seriously.” “Where unlawful content is hosted in the United Kingdom, the police have the power to seek its removal and where hosted overseas, we work closely with our international partners to effect its removal.” The search seraph and other popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have found themselves the subject of serious debate over privacy and freedom of speech, as governments and other regulatory bodies struggle to draw the line between what is appropriate and what isn’t online. The data, released as part of Google’s Transparency Report, is released twice a year. Google also gives governing bodies the opportunity to submit Government Requests, allowing them to flag any illegal or inappropriate content to Google and request it be restricted or removed. Google reported compliance with requests 82 per cent of the time. In contrast, Google also rejected requests to remove communities and profiles from its social networking site Okrut in India, following complaints that users were being critical of local politicians. Google spokesperson Stephen Rosenthal said: “As the report shows, we don’t simply censor on request, we ensure there is a case for removal.” Digg | delicious | Reddit | Google | Twitter | Sphinn | StumbleUpon | YahooBuzz | Facebook | Mixx | Contact bigmouthmedia

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Removal requests on the rise at Google