Google was forced remove 93,360 fraudulent ads during the second half of 2010 – equivalent to over 3,500 a week – after the Office of Fair Trading claimed they were linked to scams.
Google released the figures in its updated transparency report, which shows a country by country breakdown of content removal requests that Google had to deal with between July and December 2010. Google released the figures to show users how much involvement government agencies have in displaying information on the world’s most popular website.
Although the report shows Google receives the most user data removal requests from the US government, the OFT has also been hard at work. The UK government asked for 38 pieces of content to be removed, fewer than the US government, which made 54 removal requests.
Google said that 89 per cent of all content removal requests it received in the UK were fully or partially complied with. It also cited an increase in the number of requests received for user account information, but it said that this “isn’t surprising, since each year we offer more products and services, and we have a larger number of users”.
In recent years observers have called for greater openness in how Google deals with content removal requests. Due to the size and reach of Google, any form of selective information removal by governments can be regarded as censorship of the web.
At the end of Google’s transparency report the firm said: “We hope this tool will shine some light on the appropriate scope and authority of government requests to obtain user data around the globe.”
