The US government sent Google 5,950 content removal requests in the first half of 2011, more than triple the number of requests that 2nd-place India sent in during the same period.

The numbers come from Google’s latest semi-annual update to the Government Requests section of its Transparency Report. The Government Requests data represents government inquiries to Google for information about users and/or content removal requests.

Newly added in this latest release is data about the number of Google users or accounts that are specified in the government requests. For example, those 5,950 U.S. government requests specified a little more than 11,000 U.S. Google users/accounts — about 5x more than the numbers of accounts specified by India’s requests.

The Government Requests page also has some specifics about the various reasons that worldwide governments have asked Google to remove content over the past six months.

(Stock image of US flag via Shutterstock.com, used with permission.)

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Legal | Google: Outside US | Legal: Censorship

About The Author: Matt McGee is Editor-In-Chief of Search Engine Land. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. His web career continues to include a small number of SEO and social media consulting clients, as well as regular speaking engagements at marketing events around the U.S. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee and/or on Google Plus. You can read Matt's disclosures on his personal blog. See more articles by Matt McGee

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