The state of government requests to Google

Why Brazil tops the list?

Of all 291 Brazilian data removal requests attended by Google on the second semester of 2009, at least 218 were generated by Orkut. 99 of them came directly from a court order. Google has agreements with Brazilian Public Ministry in order to cooperate to identify people that have committed crimes using the tool. And it is not something so rare to happen


By GABRIELA ZAGO (gabriela.zago@wavemagazine.net)
from Porto Alegre, BRAZIL


A couple of weeks ago Google has launched a new information service called "Government Requests". The report shows, over a map, the top governmental data and removal requests sent to Google. Brazil leads both lists, followed by Germany, India and US on removal requests, and by United States, United Kingdom and India on data requests. At least for Brazil, there's a reasonable explanation: Google's social network site, Orkut, is very popular in the country (Brazilians account for 50,60% of all members - http://www.orkut.com/MembersAll) and thus many impersonation or defamatory content may take place on it.

According to Google, it is an initial report, and each request may represent different quantities of data removed. The numbers represent the number of requests Google has received from government entities for removal of content or disclosure of user data from July 1, 2009 to December 31, 2009.

Of all 291 Brazilian data removal requests attended by Google on the second semester of 2009, at least 218 were generated by Orkut. 99 of them came directly from a court order. Google has agreements with Brazilian Public Ministry in order to cooperate to identify people that have committed crimes using the tool. And it is not something so rare to happen.

One recent case involved a priest accused of pedophilia on social network site Orkut. The Brazilian court ordered Google to pay R$15.000 (approximately, U$8.000), since the accusation was posted on Orkut by an anonymous user that Google did not managed to identify. The court's argument was that the company should take responsibility for this type of situation of allowing anonymous users to post content without prior review or moderation.

Like this, many other cases take place daily on Orkut. When people seek for judicial intervention, courts usually requests information or the removal of data from Google. Sometimes, it is necessary to identify who is a fake that impersonates someone else on an Orkut user account. Others, defamatory content is posted on Orkut's communities. Those type of request may contributed to inflate Brazil's position on government requests for data or data removal from Google.

Other countries

The reason for Brazil and India be on top of requests may be the same - on both countries, Orkut is a very popular social network site. As Google points out, "we have a relatively high number of requests for information compared to other countries in part because we have such a large number of Brazilian users on Orkut, our social networking site".

However, the reason for Germany to appear on top of the list might not be so evident. Out of the 188 removal requests, 98 were related to Web Search. Google explains that "Approximately 11% of the German removal requests related to pro-Nazi content or content advocating denial of the Holocaust, both of which are illegal under German law".

China is not on the list, but it should be. According to Ars Technica, China is not present on the report because they "censor their censorship demands". Instead of numbers, over China on Google's Government Request map there's a question mark. When clicking on it, a message appears in the place of the data: "Chinese officials consider censorship demands as state secrets, so we cannot disclose that information at this time".

More on Google Government Requests

Google's report on Government Requests aims to bring more transparency to citizens into removal requests and data requests made by governments. A removal request is when a government asks for removal of content from a Google product, either a specific content or a user profile. A data request occurs when a government asks for information about users accounts or products.

Statistics cover primarily requests in criminal matter. The report also includes requests from courts, which often are originated from private-party disputes.

Statistics do not include content removals processed regularly on Google products for violation of their content policies in response to user complaints. This type of data removal doesn't depend on a request by a government, even though it may violate a local law. The report doesn't include requests for removal of copyrighted material from YouTube (because those requests usually come from private sources). Also, Google removes child pornography whenever becomes aware of it, even if no one requests.

They have plans to refine the tool in the future, in order to provide more meaningful data. But, so far, it may bring a general and interesting overview of what kind of requests various governments have made through Google.

As Google justifies the purpose of the tool, "At a time when increasing numbers of governments are trying to regulate the free flow of information on the Internet, we hope this tool will shine some light on the scale and scope of government requests to censor information or obtain user data around the globe - and we welcome external debates about these issues that we grapple with internally on a daily basis".




(Published: 10.05.2010.)