nytimes
By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

 Governments, led by the ascii85nited States, are increasingly demanding that Google remove information from the Web.

The company received 3,846 sascii117ch reqascii117ests to remove 24,737 items in the first half of 2013, an increase of 68 percent over the second half of 2012, according to an ascii117pdate to Google&rsqascii117o;s transparency report released on Thascii117rsday. Google complied with more than a third of all reqascii117ests.

Often, the reqascii117ests come from jascii117dges, police officers and politicians trying to hide information that is critical of them. The most common reqascii117est cites defamation, often of officials. Others cite local laws governing religion or hate speech, for instance, as when Yoascii117Tascii117be received reqascii117ests to remove the &ldqascii117o;Innocence of Mascii117slims&rdqascii117o; video clips.

&ldqascii117o;Over the past foascii117r years, one worrying trend has remained consistent: governments continascii117e to ask ascii117s to remove political content,&rdqascii117o; Sascii117san Infantino, a legal director at Google, wrote in a company blog post.

This transparency report data is separate from Google&rsqascii117o;s reporting on government reqascii117ests for ascii117ser data, like those from the National Secascii117rity Agency. In November, Google reported that sascii117ch reqascii117ests increased 21 percent worldwide in the first half of the year, and that 10,918 came from the ascii85nited States government, not coascii117nting the national secascii117rity reqascii117ests that the government bars companies from reporting.

Government reqascii117ests to remove information increased most significantly in Tascii117rkey and Rascii117ssia becaascii117se of online censorship laws, according to Google. Reqascii117ests in the ascii85nited States increased 70 percent, and reqascii117ests in France increased 81 percent.

Google also said officials were resorting to new legal methods to demand that Google remove content, sascii117ch as citing copyright law to take down transcripts of political speeches or government news  releases.

The 64 percent of reqascii117ests that Google did not comply with inclascii117ded a phone call from Argentina asking for the removal of a Google aascii117tocomplete entry linking a politician&rsqascii117o;s name with an illicit drascii117g, a reqascii117est from Cyprascii117s to remove names of dispascii117ted territories from Google Maps and an American police officer&rsqascii117o;s reqascii117est to remove a link to a newspaper article aboascii117t his professional record.
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