Google: Governments Step Up Online Censorship Efforts

Demands that Google remove content have doubled in two years

Google released its traditional six-month Transparency Report Thursday, the seventh since the company started releasing this type of data in 2010. And, according to the report, which covers July to December of 2012, attempts by governments around the world to censor political content on the Internet are increasing.

"From July to December 2012, we received 2,285 government requests to remove 24,179 pieces of content—an increase from the 1,811 requests to remove 18,070 pieces of content that we received during the first half of 2012," Google's Legal Director Susan Infantino wrote in a blog post.

These types of requests have doubled since the second half of 2011, when governments made 1,054 requests to remove 12,071 items.