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India towards internet emergency? Google upset with govt requests for removing content up 90%

By FnF Desk | PUBLISHED: 30, Dec 2013, 14:31 pm IST | UPDATED: 30, Dec 2013, 14:31 pm IST

India towards internet emergency? Google upset with govt requests for removing content up 90% NY: The internet company Google does not seem to be happy with the rising number of requests by the governments including India to remove contents and blogs. This alsoincludes YouTube Videos.
 
Calling this a worrying trend the US based search engine’s Legal Director Susan Infantino said that 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.
 
Between July and December 2012, Google received 2,540 requests from the Indian government and courts to remove content from Google products, such as blog posts or YouTube videos.

Google said it has received 93 requests to take down government criticism and removed content in response to less than one third of them during the first half of 2013. Four of the requests were submitted as copyright claims.

Google has released yet another transparency report to aid users in understanding the demands made by governments and authorities for the takedown of data on the Internet across the world. This time, however, Google has made it evident that the increase in the demand by governments the world over, including the Indian government, to week out blogs and videos from Google properties has been worrisome for it.

The Internet giant received 38 court orders and 122 other requests from Indian authorities between July and December 2012. Google says that it complied with 53 percent of court order requests, affecting 413 items between the period mentioned above. In contrast, Google complied with only 30 percent requests made by other authorities from India, but this affected a whopping 2,529 items that had been requested to be removed.

As for India, its Computer Emergency Response Team, asked Google to remove content from Google+, a Blogger blog, 64 YouTube videos, and 1,759 comments associated with some YouTube videos citing laws covering disruption of public order or ethnic offence laws.

It all started few months back when people from north east part of India began fleeing from Bangalore and other major cities due propaganda against them on the social media sites.

“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 three Blogger blog posts that violated local laws,” said Infantino.

What’s interesting – and a little scary – to note here is that the number of requests from Indian authorities was about a 90 percent higher than those sent out in the past six months. Defamation and Religious Offenses and Privacy and Security related requests were the most frequently cited categories by both Courts and the Executive.

Google mentions that India was one of the 20 countries to inquire about a YouTube movie called “Innocence of Muslims” that caused an uproar in multiple countries over its depiction of Islam. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team also requested removal of content from Google+, a Blogger blog, 64 YouTube videos and 1,759 comments thanks to the period of disturbance in the North East.

In response, one YouTube video was removed for violating Community Guidelines of the site and 47 videos were restricted from local views. Another request received was from a city Cyber Crime Investigation Cell to remove current depictions of disputed border of Jammu and Kashmir in five Google Maps domains, but the company did not comply.

In a blog post regarding the transparency report, Susan Infantino, Legal Director for Google mentioned that the company received 3,846 government requests to remove 24,737 pieces of content from their websites, a 68 percent increase over the second half of 2012.

“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. These officials often cite defamation, privacy and even copyright laws in attempts to remove political speech from our services,” she wrote.

Infantino clarified that the information in Google’s Transparency Report is not a comprehensive view of censorship online but it does demonstrate a worrying upward trend in government request numbers. Google has been putting out Transparency Reports since 2010 now and hopes to encourage policy debates and decisions around the world.