Google India Removed 76,967 Content Pieces In September

Google India removed 76,967 content pieces during September 1 and September 30 of this year. The reported number is around 17% lower than in the month of August when Google had taken removal action against 93,550 content pieces.

Between July 1 to July 30, 2021, Google India had removed 95,680 user content pieces, whereas, in June, Google had removed 83,613 content pieces. As per Google, the ‘removal actions’ number represents the number of items/content pieces removed or restricted as a result of a specific complaint.

Complying with Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules, the US tech major, in its recent compliance report revealed that of the 76,967 content pieces were taken down. About 99.3% content pieces were related to copyright infringement, around 0.6% were related to trademark infringement and the rest were for graphic sexual content, court order, counterfeit, or defamation. 

Google India said that it removes content after evaluating it based on Google’s community guidelines, content policies and/or legal policies. Based on this review, removal action may be taken by the company.

The search engine giant has also taken removal action against 450,246 content pieces based on its automated detection technology. The said number is almost 31% less than what the tech giant had removed in August. Google had taken removal action against 651,933 as a result of automated detection.

The tech mammoth relies on automation detection technology to prevent the dissemination of harmful content such as child sexual abuse material and violent extremist content. Last month, it had removed 576,892 content based on its automation detection technology.

In September, Google India received 29,842 complaints from its users. Of this, around 28,676 or 96.1% of the total complaints received comprise copyright infringement. Around 401 complaints were based on other legal issues, 305 were for trademark infringement, and 304 were for defamation. 

The company also reported that around 26 complaints were based on graphic sexual content and 78 were related to counterfeit.

Yesterday, the popular messaging platform WhatsApp reported that it had removed 2.2 Mn accounts in September. The report also said that the company received 560 grievance reports between September 1st and 30th. Micro-blogging platform Twitter and indigenously built Koo are yet to file their report.