Western Governments are apparently trying to make Google censor and control your search results. According to a breaking CNN.com article, Google’s ‘transparency report’ indicates that Western countries usually not known for their censorship activities are taking steps to monitor citizen’s access to certain Google search results – and the U.S. is one of the biggest culprits.
Not only have Spain and Poland made requests to make certain information related to public officials inaccessible to web users, but in 2011 United States law enforcement agencies also requested that Google remove over 6,000 search results from its pages, including blog and video links.
Although the requests for removal in 2011 are up significantly from previous years, Google has been complying with a smaller percentage of these requests as they increase. For example, in 2010 Google said it complied with 87% of US requests for content removal, while in 2011 Google complied with just 42%.
The mounting number of requests for content removal from the United States Government is certainly troubling to anyone who values freedom of information and web transparency, and will warrant closer scrutiny from the public going forward.