Turkey Tops Internet Censor List

In 2013, the number of content removal requests Google received worldwide increased by 68% compared to the previous reporting period.

Various governments made 3,846 request for the removal of 24,737 web content.  

Releasing its transparency report for 2013, Google underlined the apparent increase in the number of content removal requests from Turkey and Russia. 

With 1673 content removal requests, Turkey ten-folded its number of requests compared to 2012. 

“For the past four years, the [Turkish] government’s steady increase of content removal request is worrisome,” Google Legal Director Susan Infantino said.  

“While court authorities demand for content removal, police demands the ban of videos and municipal authorities desire not to inform people regarding decision-making processes. Officials claim these removal requests based on accusation, defamation, confidentiality and even copyright.”

966 percent increase  

The number of content removal requests we received increased by 966% compared to the previous reporting period.

* Google received a court order to remove any search results linking to information about a political official and sex scandals. Google did not remove the search results.

* Google received two requests from a government agency to remove a blog that contains information about the Kurdish party and Kurdish activists as well as a Google+ profile picture showing a map of Kurdistan. Google did not remove the blog or the profile picture.

* Google received a court order directed at a third party to remove a blog that allegedly defamed a public prosecutor by criticizing the quality of his work. Google did not remove the blog.

* Google received three court orders directed at third parties to remove several blog posts that contained private emails, phone numbers, bank account information and national identification numbers for several government officials. Google removed the vast majority of the blog posts for violating our product policies.

* Google received 1,126 requests from government agencies to remove a total of 1,345 items from Blogger, Google+, and Web Search that the agencies claimed were in violation of law 5651. Google removed 188 items that violated our product policies.

* Google received 37 requests from government agencies to remove a total of 17 YouTube videos and 109 blog posts that contained content critical of Ataturk. Google removed 10 videos that violated our Community Guidelines. (ÇT/BM)