Google: Government Request To Remove Content Worrying
These officials often cite defamation, privacy and even copyright laws in attempts to remove political speech from Google's services.
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.
In the past too, Google has said the number of such requests are on the rise with growing usage of its services every year.
"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," she said.
Tech firms, including Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo, have been seeking to release more information on Government data requests, in the belief that this would reassure their customers.
These companies have also expressed "serious" concerns about monitoring of content by government agencies and they have also beefed up encryption (security) of user data to protect privacy of their consumers.
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