Posts Tagged ‘Google’
November 13th, 2012
Google’s new transparency report reveals government requests for user data and takedowns are on the increase
Today the search giant updated its bi-annual report with requests from January to June 2012. In a
blog accompanying the report a Google analyst said:
This is the sixth time we’ve released this data, and one trend has become clear: Government surveillance is on the rise.
In the first half of 2012, the internet giant received
20,938 demands for user data from government proxies around the world — a 33 per cent increase from the same period last year.
Take down requests from government entities are also on the rise, government administrators made 1,789 demands to remove 17,746 items. Google also released details of some of the UK removal requests:
- We received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove 14 search results for linking to sites that criticize the police and claim individuals were involved in obscuring crimes. We did not remove content in response to this request. In addition, we received a request from another local law enforcement agency to remove a YouTube video for criticizing the agency of racism. We did not remove content in response to this request.
- The number of content removal requests we received increased by 98% compared to the previous reporting period
In a policy paper released last week Index expressed serious concerns about the rapid increase in the number of governments and government surrogates who use takedown requests to silence critics.
September 17th, 2012
Anti-Islam film: Padraig Reidy asks if this time is different from previous blasphemy rows
(more…)
August 24th, 2012
Search engines and social networking sites are at the heart of Web 2.0. To unreasonably threaten them with liability for user content misses the point, says Marta Cooper (more…)
June 18th, 2012
Report reveals an alarming rise in the amount of government requests to remove political content from the internet
(more…)
April 12th, 2012
Google, Facebook, and other internet companies may be required cooperate with Vietnamese authorities in
removing content from their sites, based on draft regulations that have been released by the Ministry of Information. Foreign businesses that provide online social networking platforms in Vietnam must “make pledges in writing” to follow local censorship laws and remove information, including that which is against the Vietnamese government, damages “social and national security” or promotes violence, newspaper Thanh Hien News said. The new rules will be considered for approval in June.
February 17th, 2012
Google has
urged the Australian federal government to reject an interim independent report recommending the country’s internet be regulated in a similar manner to television, arguing it would be unclear how regulation online could be imposed without a filter. Its proposals, if successful, would
usher in a “new independent regulator for content and communications” that is technology-neutral. Google said it was “struggling with the one-size-fits-all model” the proposals made in the report, which is related to part of Australia’s
Convergence Review into determining if current media policy and regulation need amending.
January 13th, 2012
The Delhi High Court has threatened Facebook and Google with
web blackouts, unless they agree to censor objectionable content. Following
last month’s meetings between Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook and the Indian government to discuss content management on their sites, Justice Suresh Kait warned that if the internet giants refuse to filter content, their websites will be blocked “
like China“. Mukul Rohatgi who testified on behalf of Google India said that the search giant cannot filter “obscene, objectionable and defamatory” content.
December 6th, 2011
The
Indian Government have asked internet companies and social media organisations to
censor internet content before it goes online. India’s acting telecommunications minister Kapil Sibal met with top officials from the Indian units of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook on Monday to discuss implementing the removal of disparaging, inflammatory or defamatory content before being published online.
Three un-named executives of Internet companies were told in a previous meeting that Sibal expected them to set up a proactive pre-screening system using people, not technology.
