World

Turkey’s Government tops Google’s list for content removal requests

In stark comparison to 2011, the Turkish government submitted 501 requests to Google for content removal in the first half of 2012, whereas it filed only 45 requests during the previous period, according to Google’s most recent Transparency Report, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

Google said the top three reasons cited by government for content removal were defamation, privacy and security.

Worldwide authorities made 1,789 requests for Google to remove content, up from 1,048 requests for the last six months of 2011.

In the period from January to June, Turkey made 501 requests for content removal. These included 148 requests related to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the current government, national identity and values. Others included claims of pornography, hate speech and copyright.

Google has its own criteria for whether it will remove content – the request must be specific, relate to a specific web address and have come from a relevant authority.

The United States follows Turkey on the list with 273 requests for removal, up from 187 in the last period.Germany and Brazil come second and third respectively. The United Kingdom is fifth.

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