Google’s latest “Transparency Report”, released on Tuesday, reports a slight decrease in the number of government requests to remove information for the June 2013 to December 2013 period.
The report revealed that the search giant received some 3,105 data removal requests asking to remove a total of 14,637 pieces of content between June 2013 and December 2013 as compared to 3,846 removal requests received during December 2012 to June 2013 for removal of 24,737 pieces of content.
Google legal director Trevor Callaghan in a blog post noted that the massive spike in requests during the first half of 2013 attributed to a large number of inquiries out of Turkey related to unrest there.
The report found that the number of data removal requests from Russia increased by 25 per cent compared to the last reporting period. Thailand and Italy also requested more removal requests during the period.
Blogger with 1,066 requests, Search with 841 requests and YouTube with 765 requests remained the top three Google products cited in data removal requests.
Over the second half of 2013, defamation was cited as the top reason for removal in around 38 per cent of government removal requests, followed by 16 per cent citing obscenity or nudity, and 11 per cent falling back on privacy or security.
“Our Transparency Report is certainly not a comprehensive view of censorship online,” Callaghan wrote.
“However, it does provide a lens on the things that governments and courts ask us to remove, underscoring the importance of transparency around the processes governing such requests. We hope that you’ll take the time to explore the new report to learn more about the government removals across Google.”