Google has released its latest "Transparency Report" and while the company has been vocal in asking for reforms in the data gathering practices of governments, it noted a big jump in the number of requests of governments across the globe to censor what appears online.
In its eighth report since 2010, the search engine giant said it received 3,846 government requests to remove 24,737 online items between January and June this year. The number reflects a 68 percent jump from the figures for the second half of the previous year.
Since July 2010, removal requests are mainly due to contents that are believed to be violating privacy and security, focusing on defamation, criticism of governments, and adult content, among others.
"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," wrote Google's Legal Director Susan Infantino in a blog post.
"Over the past four years, one worrying trend has remained consistent: governments continue to ask us to remove political content. 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," Infantino said.
The United States content removal requests increased by 70 percent compared to the preceding period. Google acted on 27 requests from government agencies that requested removal of apps violating trademark rights from its Play Store. The company as a result suspended 76 apps. The report does not include information about the date or volume when the government requested user information as part of the surveillance program of the National Security Agency (NSA).
Russia posted 257 requests to remove content fromt the services of Google. This comes after a blacklist law was enacted during the period covered by the report.
Meanwhile, Turkish authorities sent 1,673 requests or about a tenfold increase compared to the last transparency report. Most of the requests called for removal of more than 1,300 content that violate Law 5651 of the country that regulates publications of materials on the Internet in the hopes of preventing crimes.
Tech companies including Google met with President Barack Obama this week and discussed pressing issues such as the NSA snooping program and the healthcare program of the administration.
