India third-biggest seeker of Google content removal

Internet search leader Google, which recently stopped censoring results in China after a tussle with the authorities, has ranked India third in a list of countries from which it receives requests to take down content from its websites, or to turn over information about users of Google products to government authorities.

For the first time, Google has published a country-wise list of the number of requests received from governments, seeking either removal of information or more details. The list is based on requests made to Google between 1 July 2009 and 31 December 2009.

As per the list, Google received maximum removal requests from Brazil (291), followed by Germany (188) and India (142). The US was fourth, with 123 requests. But it has refused to publish government requests from China, which it says are a state secret.

"For Brazil and India, requests for content removal are high relative to other countries in part because of the popularity of our social networking website, Orkut. The majority of the Brazilian and Indian requests for removal of content from Orkut relate to alleged impersonation or defamation," Google said in a statement released late on Wednesday.

Other countries in the list are South Korea (64), the UK (59), Italy (57), Argentina (42), Spain (32), Australia (17) and Canada (16).

In terms of seeking data, Brazil is again at the top with 3,663 requests, while India is at the fourth place with 1,061 requests. India is behind the US (3,580) and the UK (1,166).