India became the third most popular country in terms of content removal requests sent to Google

The Indian government has asked Google to remove 1.155 lakh pieces of content from its platforms, including YouTube, the web browser, and others, over the last ten years.

As a result, according to a Surfshark study, India ranked as the third-most-popular nation in terms of requests for content removal sent to Google.

Government agencies asked google 19600 times to remove content

Indian government agencies have asked Google to remove content more than 19,600 times between 2013 and 2022. According to the analysis, one of the most common justifications for the requests was "defamation."

The information demonstrated a global trend in which governments use content removal requests to try and censor information. Government requests for content removal have reportedly exceeded 3, 55,000 during the past ten years, according to the report. With a 50% increase in removal requests, 2022 breaks all previous records.

The number of requests from governments to remove content from Google products is increasing. According to the Surfshark report, the global count has increased almost 13 times in the last ten years, from 7k to 91k requests annually.

Such requests increased during periods of international conflicts and wars

Globally, the report noted that governments primarily cited content removal as a matter of national security. The report revealed a significant rise in requests for content removal from Google made by governments worldwide during periods of international conflicts and wars.

The Indian government gave YouTube the most attention of all the platforms under Google's management. The majority of requests for content removal were made because of YouTube.

According to the report, YouTube (8.8k), Google Play Apps (4.3k), and Web Search (1.4k) accounted for the majority of the content that India requested be removed.

On average, the government made 5 requests per day

The Indian government submitted 19,600 requests for Google to remove content. The government has made five daily requests on average over the past ten years. The top three reasons for content removal requests were slander, insult, and corporate defamation, all of which involved reputational harm (20.1%). After defamation (16.3%), impersonation, privacy, and security (8.3%), came in order.

The information and communications authority, court orders issued to Google, and the police have been the top three parties from India requesting the removal of content.

OTT India updates you with the latest news, Country’s no.1 digital news platform OTT India, Keeps you updated with national, and international news from all around the world. For more such updates, download the OTT India app on your Android and IOS device.