Government Requests Addressed to Google to Remove Content by Type of Reason

Governments contact Google with content removal requests for a number of reasons. Government bodies may claim that content violates a local law, and include court orders that are often not directed at Google with their requests. Both types of requests are counted in this report. Google also includes government requests to review content to determine if it violates Google's product community guidelines and content policies. The data cover the period January 2010 - December 2021. Overall, the government requests to remove content increase by 11% in the second half of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020. When it comes to reasons for removal, the requests related to privacy and security increased by more than 250% and all other reasons by almost 30%. At the same time, the requests related to regulated goods fell by 20% and the ones related to copyright declined by 32%.