Removed 1.54 lakh content, received 71,148 complaints in May, June: Google

New Delhi: Google on Friday released its monthly transparency report which cited that it removed more than 1.54 lakh pieces of content after receiving 71,148 complaints from individual users in India in May and June. The number of complaints received in June from individual users in India was 36,265, leading to 83,613 removal actions - both the numbers were higher than the levels seen in May. 

In addition to reports from users, Google also removed more than 11.6 lakh pieces of content in May and June as a result of automated detection. Google removed 6, 34,357 content in May and 5, 26,866 content in June from the automatic process.  

Google said it had received 34,883 complaints in May from individual users located in India via designated mechanisms, and the number of removal actions as a result of user complaints was 71,132. These complaints relate to third-party content that is believed to violate local laws or personal rights on Google's SSMI (significant social media intermediary) platforms, it added.  

The content removal was done under several categories, including copyright (70,365), trademark (753), counterfeit (5), other legal (4), circumvention (3) and graphic sexual content (2).

In June, Google received 36,265 complaints -



the highest so far - from individual users. It removed 83,613 pieces of content as a result of user complaints in the said month. Content removed during June was done under similar categories as in May. Copyright segment accounted for the largest number of content removed (83,054), trademark (532), counterfeit (14), circumvention (4), other legal (2), graphic sexual content (1) and defamation (1). Three content pieces were removed under the impersonation category and two under the court order in June.

In its report for May, Google said it had received 34,883 complaints from individual users located in India via designated mechanisms, and the number of removal actions as a result of user complaints was 71,132. These complaints relate to third-party content that is believed to violate local laws or personal rights on Google's SSMI (significant social media intermediary) platforms, it added.

The US-based company has made these disclosures as part of compliance with India's IT rules that came into force on May 26.

In its maiden report, Google said it had received over 27,700 complaints in April this year from individual users in India over alleged violation of local laws or personal rights, which resulted in the removal of 59,350 pieces of content.