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Google has had its run-ins with China over government policies, but now it's pointing the finger of blame at the U.S. and some other Western nations. "Comparing the U.S. government to China in terms of censorship isn't the best thing to do politically," suggested tech analyst Rob Enderle, "... But Google has never been savvy in terms of politics. It just isn't one of their strengths."

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) announced Monday that it had received more than 1,000 requests from authorities to take down content from its search results and YouTube video service during the past six months. Google has characterized this as an "alarming trend."

The company also released its twice-yearly Transparency Report, noting noted that the requests were aimed at removing some 12,000 items overall. This is an increase of about 25 percent from the first half of last year.

"Unfortunately, what we've seen over the past couple years has been troubling, and today is no different," Dorothy Chou, the search engine's senior policy analyst, said in a blog post. "We hoped this was an aberration. But now we know it's not."

Google's response maybe as much about holding firm as it is about addressing every request.

"There are two reasons for Google's response," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. "When they give in to censorship they look weak. The second is that it is damn hard to manage. It requires a substantial number of folks who can manage the process, and moreover any law or edict is open to multiple interruptions."

The requests were not limited to countries with strict censorship policies, either. While Google refused to delete six YouTube videos that mocked Pakistani politicians and military officials, the company also refused to remove a video of a Canadian citizen urinating on his passport.

"They've been involved in this issue for a while," said Daniel Castro, senior analyst for the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation. "As an organization that has been put in this situation, they've been very upfront about how they'll address the requests to have the content removed."

The discussion may move to whether the content involved is even appropriate or not, Castro told TechNewsWorld.

Content that was deemed inappropriate was removed: 100 or so YouTube videos in Thailand that allegedly insulted the monarchy, which is a crime in that country; a video that contained hate speech in Turkey; and YouTube accounts that posted threatening and harassing content in the United States, following complaints from U.S. law enforcement agencies.

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Google Sounds Censorship Alarm in Free World

Google's new Transparency Report shows a significant uptick in government censorship attempts and requests for users' private data in 2011.

Government censorship of the Web, including attempts from Western democracies to silent political speech, rose significantly during the second half of 2011, according to the most recent data released by Google. Of the 1007 requests from governments around the world to take down content, including YouTube videos and search results, Google complied with more than half of them.

Google has also seen a jump in government requests for users private data, with the U.S. government issuing more than 6,000 such requests.

News of a spike in censorship and user data requests from governments around the world comes with the release of the biannual Google Transparency Report, first launched in 2010, which Google posted online late Sunday night.

The reasons for, and nature of, the censorship request vary widely: defamation, hate speech, pornography, privacy and security, national security, impersonation, electoral law, copyright infringement, and that forever-vauge category other.

During the second half of last year (July through December), U.S. government agencies issued a total of 187 requests for the removal of 6,192 individual items. Of those, 117 were formal requests, while the remaining 70 requests came in an informal manner (such as a phone call). Google says that it complied with 40 percent of the formal take-down requests, and 44 percent of the informal ones.

Only Brazil issued more individual requests than the the U.S., but sought the take-down of a fraction of the content compared to the U.S. government.

In terms of private user data, the U.S. government issued 6,321 total requests of information from 12,243 accounts during the July through December 2011 period. That marks a 37 percent increase from the previous six months, during which U.S. government agencies asked that Google supply user data 5,950 times, which concerned 11,057 accounts. Googles senior policy analyst Dorothy Chou tells Forbes that many of the requests are for user IP addresses, which are used by local law enforcement in criminal cases.

In both the first and second parts of 2011, Google complied with user data requests from U.S. government agencies 93 percent of the time.

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Google: U.S. government censorship, private user data requests on the rise

Google on Sunday released its regular report of censorship requests it receives from governments around the world with warning words.

When we started releasing this data in 2010, we also added annotations with some of the more interesting stories behind the numbers, wrote Google Senior Policy Analyst Dorothy Chou in a company blog Sunday.

Chou wrote that she was alarmed by the number of requests to take down political speech, and the number of requests Googles had from Western democracies not typically associated with censorship.

Case in point: the United States, which reportedly increased its requests by 103 percent in the past six months.

According to Googles report, takedown requests from the United States included those for the termination or removal of five YouTube accounts, 1,400 YouTube videos, 218 search results and a blog that allegedly defamed a law enforcement official in a personal capacity.

The report indicates that Google declined to comply to take down the blog post, the videos or the majority of the search results. The company did remove four YouTube accounts, which had around 300 videos, and 25 percent of the search requests.

The company said, overall, it has complied with an average of 65 percent of court orders and 47 percent of more informal requests in the six months detailed in Sundays data.

The past six months also saw a 49 percent increase in requests from the Indian government, as well as first-time requests from four countries: Bolivia, the Czech Republic, Jordan and Ukraine.

Google offered detailed looks at some, though not most, of the requests. For example, the company said it did not comply with a Canadian request to remove a YouTube video of a Canadian citizen urinating on his passport and flushing it down the toilet. A British request to remove 640 videos from five user accounts that allegedly support terrorism was honored after Google found that those users had violated its community guidelines. In other cases, the company removed content to comply with court orders or to abide by local laws.

As CNET noted, the list doesnt include any censorship from countries that dont bother with requests to censor Googles information, such as China or Iran. They censor the information themselves.

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Google: U.S. censorship requests doubled in last half of 2011

Google has released data from its latest Transparency Report covering censorship and content removal requests. The report features separate presentations of copyright-based removal requests and government requests. Google began publishing this data about two years go.

The report is updated regularly; however government censorship and removal requests are updated every six months. The number of copyright removal requests has grown dramatically over the past six months. Most of these requests involve file sharing domains.

Most of the takedown requests are coming from entertainment companies or trade groups representing them. However the top copyright owner requesting takedowns was Microsoft with more than 2 million URLs requested to be removed in the past year and almost 500,000 in the past month.

In the government requests category, Google said that the US is the country with the most activity. Some of these requests are in the form of court orders, while others from various government and law-enforcement entities. Overall there were more than 6,000 content items targeted in just under 200 removal requests in the US during the past six months.

Google actually complied with those requests a little over 40 percent of the time. That includes court orders, interestingly.

Germany, Brazil, Australia, Argentina, Canada, Turkey and the UK were other countries with considerable content removal activity. Driven by local laws, in some cases Googles compliance was much greater than in others. An article in the Wall Street Journal goes into some of these legal differences between states and governments and provides some examples.

In addition to the overview and summary information Google maintains the raw data detailing the dates, parties and reasons provided for the removal requests. Google also discusses the chilling effects of these removal requests in several instances. In a blog post Google pointed out that political speech is often being targeted in government removal requests:

For example, in the second half of last year, Spanish regulators asked us to remove 270 search results that linked to blogs and articles in newspapers referencing individuals and public figures, including mayors and public prosecutors. In Poland, we received a request from a public institution to remove links to a site that criticized it. We didnt comply with either of these requests.

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Most Censorship And Content Takedown Requests Come From US, Says Google

Generally when Google shows up in the news regarding information being exposed on the Web its about privacy issues and concerns that too much data is being stored or distributed by the Internet giant. Its also possible, though, that in some cases Google may not be displaying enough information.

About two years ago Google started posting data online in its Transparency Report. The data includes real-time traffic information, as well as requests from individuals, companies, or governments to surrender data, and requests to have sites or information removed from Google search or from YouTube.

Governments should be very careful about engaging in censorship.Requests from users to remove sites is monitored in real-time, but the data for government takedown requests is only updated every six months. While we might expect certain strict regimes like China or Thailand to police the Internet in this way, Google says its not necessarily the case.

A post on Googles Public Policy Blog explains the most recent data. Google notes that the rate of such requests continues to climb, and warns of the negative impact of the trend. Its alarming not only because free expression is at risk, but because some of these requests come from countries you might not suspect--Western democracies not typically associated with censorship.

When it comes to court orders demanding information Brazil leads the way, followed by the United States, and Germany. Broken down by other government requests (not court orders), India and South Korea come out on top, but the Unites States, Brazil, and Germany are right behind them.

The Google blog post claims that regulators in Spain asked that 270 search results linked to articles or posts about public figures be removed. It also says, In Poland, we received a request from a public institution to remove links to a site that criticized it.

Google doesnt comply with every request that comes in, and it didnt comply with the requests from Spain or Poland. Nevertheless, there are hundreds of such claims that Google has complied with.

Privacy online is certainly a big deal. But, in my opinion censorship is a bigger issue. Censorship is a slippery--very slippery--slope.

Its easy to justify when you agree that certain data is objectionable or subversive, but its tricky to draw the line in the sand. The biggest problem with defining whats legitimate free speech, and what should be blocked or taken down is that its a subjective decision that not all will agree with.

Most people find the Ku Klux Klan or NAMBLA to be morally offensive, and would gladly censor them. But, if you allow those organizations to be censored, you run the risk that someone else will find your beliefs or organizations unworthy and youll end up on the wrong side of the line in the sand.

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Google Reports 'Alarming' Rate of Government Censorship