YouTubeLaw agencies want YouTube police brutality videos removed

In Google’s latest Transparency Report, the company revealedthat there has been a 70 percent increase in requests by law enforcement agencies to remove police brutality videos from YouTube.

According to the report, from January to June of 2011 the “number of content removal requests we received increased by 70 percent” compared to the period from July to December of 2010.

Google complied with 63 percent of government requests overall, but if the requesting party lacked a court order to remove certain content the company declined.

“We received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove YouTube videos of police brutality, which we did not remove,” the company said.

“Separately, we received requests from a different local law enforcement agency for removal of videos allegedly defaming law enforcement officials. We did not comply with those requests, which we have categorized in this Report as defamation requests.”

In total the company the government requested the Internet giant to remove 757 items, of which approximately 80 percent were categorized as alleged defamation.

Aside from the increase in video removal requests, the report indicated that there was also a 29 percent in requests on user data from law enforcement agencies.

Google received a total of 5,950 government requests for user data, and the company complied with 93 percent of them.

Requests for user data are most often in conjunction with criminal investigations.

The company was careful to note that the increase in user data requests may not have stemmed from a particular incident, but from its rapidly expanding user base.

“The number of requests we receive for user account information as part of criminal investigations has increased year after year. The increase isn’t surprising, since each year we offer more products and services, and we have a larger number of users,” Google wrote.