Brazil, US Top The List Of Countries That Sent The Most Censorship Requests To Google

In the six months between July and Dec. 2012, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) received a total of 321 censorship requests from the U.S., according to Google’s most recent transparency report. The number of items that Google was asked to remove totaled 3,956.

Fifty-nine of these requests came from the U.S. government, the rest, 262 requests were made via court order. The most common reasons stated for both types of requests were defamation, privacy and security concerns, trademark and copyright violations. Google complied with 45 percent of the requests made.

Among the types of content that Google was asked to remove include YouTube videos, Blogger posts, Google Images, Street View, Picasa Web Albums.

In those six months, only one country made more censorship requests of Google than the U.S. Brazil topped the list with 697 requests for removal of content, more than double the U.S. number.

However, at second place on this list, censorship requests that originated in the U.S. far exceeded that of any other country.

Other countries with high volumes of removal requests were: Germany, India, Turkey and Russia.

Here’s a map of all the removal requests Google received. Countries are color coded based on the total number of requests that originated from that country. Click on any country to see how many requests were made, what percentage of those requests Google complied with and the total number of items requested to be removed.