Google's Latest Transparency Report Shows Increased Censorship From Governments Not Normally Known For Censorship
from the not-cool dept
Google has continued to update its big "Transparency Report" with new data on specific content takedown requests from government agencies. With this latest update, Google has put out a blog post warning people that governments -- including those not normally associated with censorship -- are increasingly seeking to shut down speech for what appear to be politically motivated reasons:We noticed that government agencies from different countries would sometimes ask us to remove political content that our users had posted on our services. We hoped this was an aberration. But now we know it’s not.There are some interesting, if odd, specific examples, like the following:
This is the fifth data set that we’ve released. And just like every other time before, we’ve been asked to take down political speech. It’s alarming not only because free expression is at risk, but because some of these requests come from countries you might not suspect—Western democracies not typically associated with censorship.
For example, in the second half of last year, Spanish regulators asked us to remove 270 search results that linked to blogs and articles in newspapers referencing individuals and public figures, including mayors and public prosecutors. In Poland, we received a request from a public institution to remove links to a site that criticized it. We didn’t comply with either of these requests.
Brazil: In December, we received an electoral court order that resulted in the removal of four orkut profiles for content related to political campaigns.This expansion of governments seeking to censor speech via Google takedowns is clearly worrisome, though it's good to see that Google at least investigates the details before taking down the content.
Canada: We received a request from the Passport Canada office to remove a YouTube video of a Canadian citizen urinating on his passport and flushing it down the toilet. We did not comply with this request.
Pakistan: We received a request from the Government of Pakistan's Ministry of Information Technology to remove six YouTube videos that satirized the Pakistan Army and senior politicians. We did not comply with this request.
Poland: We received a request from the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development to remove a search result that criticized the agency as well as eight more that linked to it. We did not comply with this request.
Spain: We received 14 requests from the Spanish Data Protection Authority to remove 270 search results that linked to blogs and sites referencing individuals and public figures. The Spanish Data Protection Authority also ordered the removal of three blogs published on Blogger and three videos hosted on YouTube. We did not comply with these requests.
United States: We received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove a blog because of a post that allegedly defamed a law enforcement official in a personal capacity. We did not comply with this request, which we have categorized in this Report as a defamation request.
We received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove 1,400 YouTube videos for alleged harassment. We did not comply with this request. Separately, we received a request from a different local law enforcement agency to remove five user accounts that allegedly contained threatening and/or harassing content. We terminated four of the accounts, which resulted in the removal of approximately 300 videos, but did not remove the remaining account with 54 videos.
We received a court order to remove 218 search results that linked to allegedly defamatory websites. We removed 25% of the results cited in the request.
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Filed Under: brazil, canada, censorship, pakistan, poland, spain, transparency report
Companies: google, youtube
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"you know Google's trying to take over the world. We don't care. We know they'd do a good job at it."
Better than Facebook ever could at least.
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I think that governments, especially the US, were just looking for an excuse to increase their control of their citizens. 9/11 was the excuse they needed.
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9/11 excuse
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Nah. Go to NY around 9/11. The security theater ramps up and New Yorkers are like ahh its that 9-11 thing again.
Just to point out what a joke their security is, Sept-6, 7, 8, & 9... nothing out of the norm, but Sept 10th rolls around and all of a sudden there are cops on every corner with their "roadblocks" and such. I guess potential terrorists wouldnt think to go there a week before. Its stupid really.
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How does Google decide to only comply with a portion of a court order? Did they fight to overturn the order, or did they face contempt of court penalties? Or are they outside of the jurisdiction of the court, and only censored the 25% according to their own policies?
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also possibly jurisdictional issues. the US is not the only government to completely fail to understand the concept of Borders when it comes to law enforcement as it relates to the internet, but it's certainly the worst. (which is even more amusing when you realise that US companies are some of the worst offenders when it comes to region-locking stuff on the internet...)
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Wait, what? Which ones are those? I thought those were just a myth!
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Something missing
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Waiting for the Backlash
Maybe it will come in the form of takedown request? fat lotta good that would do, but it would be funny to see in the takedown report...
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Prior to the internet we would have not known that these types of "takedowns" were even happening.
Censorship? By our Government...Of course not.At least not before the printing press.
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