Google India removes nearly 1 lakh content pieces in August

On a daily basis, Google India receives a large number of complaints and responds by banning offenders or removing the infringing content. The measure taken by Google shows that the crackdown on those who use dubious methods to publish their information online will continue.

Google has received 35,191 complaints from users alone, according to the latest data. It also disclosed that in August, 93,550 pieces of content were removed as a result of those complaints. In its monthly transparency report, Google revealed that in August, the tech giant removed 651,933 pieces of content as a consequence of automatic identification, in addition to user reports. Google is required to disclose these disclosures in order to comply with India's new IT regulations, which took effect on May 26, 2021.

These complaints, according to Google, are about third-party content on Google's significant social media intermediaries (SSMI) platforms that are thought to breach local laws or personal rights. "Some requests may allege infringement of intellectual property rights, while others claim violation of local laws prohibiting types of content on grounds such as defamation. When we receive complaints regarding content on our platforms, we assess them carefully," it added.

Copyright (92,750), trademark (721), counterfeit (32), circumvention (19), court order (12), explicit sexual material (12), and other legal requests were also used to remove content (4).

In addition to user reports, Google claimed it invests substantially in combating dangerous information online and employs technology to detect and remove it from its platforms. "This includes using automated detection processes for some of our products to prevent the dissemination of harmful content such as child sexual abuse material and violent extremist content."

Google claims that automatic detection allows it to implement its guidelines and policies more promptly and correctly. It noted that these removal steps could result in the content being removed or a bad actor's access to the Google service being terminated.

"We balance privacy and user protection to quickly remove content that violates our Community Guidelines and content policies; restrict content (e.g., age-restrict content that may not be appropriate for all audiences); or leave the content live when it doesn't violate our guidelines or policies," it added.

In the month of August, both Facebook and WhatsApp took action against wrongdoers. WhatsApp said it has terminated almost two million accounts in India, while Facebook "actioned" over 31.7 million material pieces.