India asked Google to block content critical of government...

Are Indians allowed to use the Internet to criticise politicians and officials? If Google's latest ‘Transparency Report' is any indication, the police in some States don't seem to think so. In the last six months of 2010, law enforcement agencies across India asked the web search company to remove YouTube videos and a blog “that were critical of Chief Ministers and senior officials of different States.” Google says it did not comply with these requests.

In all, Google received 67 content removal requests from India between July and December 2010, covering a total of 282 items. Six of these requests were from courts and the rest from the executive, police and others.

The search engine said that 22 per cent of removal requests were fully or partially complied with, and the rest declined. It also received 1,699 “user data requests” from the government — euphemism for the police wanting a peek into the search and usage habits of targeted individuals — and complied with 79 per cent of these. However, no details were given. More...

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