Google’s “Transparency Report” is an interesting read

For those of you who are interested in what types of things Google is asked to remove, the quantity of requests, where they originate from, and Google’s policies, it is worth looking at their “Transparency Report“.

Over the last 6 months they received 46 UK Court Orders and complied with 63%. That compares with 438 US Court Orders of which they complied with 55%. The US, followed by Brazil, then Turkey sent the most Court Orders during the first half of 2014. The UK doesn’t come anywhere close, although is s.13 of the new Defamation Act about to change all that? It provides that:

“(1)Where a court gives judgment for the claimant in an action for defamation the court may order—

(a)the operator of a website on which the defamatory statement is posted to remove the statement, or

(b)any person who was not the author, editor or publisher of the defamatory statement to stop distributing, selling or exhibiting material containing the statement.”

Gideon Benaim, Head of Reputation Protection at Michael Simkins LLP