Google defies takedown requests on police brutality videos

For the last two years, Google has released comprehensive reports twice a year on the frequency of takedown requests and government data requests received in countries around the world. The latest data, released on Tuesday, focuses on the first half of 2011.

[...]The report gives us a glimpse of how Google deals with censorious laws around the world. In the United States, Google received multiple requests from law enforcement agencies to remove videos allegedly depicting police brutality or the defamation of police officers. Google says it declined these requests.

The statistics show that the United States continues to lead the world in snooping on Google users. US law enforcement made 5,950 separate requests for user data from 11,057 user accounts. Google complied with the requests 93 percent of the time. This was an almost 40 percent increase in the number of requests compared to the same period a year earlier. On a per capita basis, France (1,300 requests) and the United Kingdom (1,273 requests) were on par with the United States. Other nations were far behind.