Google India Took Down Over 1.38 Lakh Content Pieces In August 2022

Tech giant Google received 37,282 complaints from individual users in India during the month of August and removed 1,38,332 content pieces based on the complaints received, according to its monthly transparency report.

The US-based company had received 37,173 complaints in July this year, while it had removed 6,89,457 pieces during the month based on user complaints.

The maximum complaints received by the company during the month pertained to copyright violations (35,469). Infringement of IP rights, violation of local laws abolishing defamatory, counterfeit and impersonated content pieces, graphic sexual content were the other reasons for the complaints.

Talking about the process of content removal, the compliance report said that each unique URL in a specific complaint is termed as an individual item. “A single user complaint can specify multiple items that potentially relate to the same or different pieces of content,” it said.

In August, Google took down 1,35,866 pieces for alleged copyright violations (98.2%), while 2,448 content pieces were removed for copying trademarks. 

“When we receive complaints from individual users regarding allegedly unlawful or harmful content, we assess each item to determine if the content violates our Community Guidelines or content policies, or meets local legal requirements for removal,” Google said in the report. 

Google also took down 5,51,659 pieces based on its automatic detection system for fighting harmful online content.

Google deploys automated detection processes to prevent the dissemination of harmful content such as child sexual abuse material and violent extremist content. 

It is prudent to note that as per the IT Rules, 2021, social media platforms having over 5 Mn users in India have to publish a compliance report every month. Apart from Google, social media intermediaries such as Meta and Twitter also publish monthly compliance reports. In July, Meta took action against 27 Mn+ complaints, while Twitter suspended over 45K accounts.