Over the past decade, the Indian government has asked Google to remove more than 1.1 lakh items across platforms like YouTube and Google Play Apps, emerging as one of the top three countries in content removal requests. In the period from 2013 to 2022, Indian authorities sought takedowns over 19,600 times, citing reasons primarily related to defamation. This mirrors a global trend, with governmental content removal requests surpassing 355,000 in the last ten years, notably peaking by 50% in 2022.
The surge in content removal requests globally, highlighted in the Surfshark report, often coincides with international conflicts, with national security being a common reason cited by governments.
Agneska Sablovskaja, Surfshark’s Lead Researcher, emphasized “A notable increase in content removal requests to Google by governments around the world during times of international conflicts and wars prompts us to consider the balance between genuine interest in a country’s public safety and the potential encroachment into censorship.”
YouTube content faced the highest scrutiny in India, constituting a significant portion of the removal requests alongside Google Play Apps and Web Search. The government made an average of five removal requests per day over the decade, predominantly based on claims of defamation, impersonation, privacy, and security concerns. The main entities behind these requests were the police, court orders directed at Google, and the information and communications authority.
