Google receives request to remove YouTube videos of police brutality

[Matariki]

Wow. Just wow.

http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/governmentrequests/US/?p=2011-06

[Zoeisright]

1. Yep - cover it up, erase it, like it never happened!

Just like Soviet Russia.

[Matariki]

2. Some very clever developers need to band together

and come up with some an alternative to twitter, facebook and google. You know, just in case. Preferably something that isn't stored in one place.

Like this perhaps: http://chronicle.com/article/Fear-of-Repression-Spurs/129049

[chollybocker]

3. 'Anonymous dot com' has a nice ring to it.

;)

Anonymous must have copies of just about everything by now. And just about everything ever.

[JDPriestly]

4. To be defamation, a statement or report must be false.

If the videos are false, then maybe they are defamatory, but if the videos are not tampered with and simply reflect what happened, especially if they are made without commentary assessing the events depicted, how in the world can they be defamatory?

[coalition_unwilling]

15. Truth is an absolute defense to libel or defamation charges - n/t

[Lasher]

5. It is very important to note that Google denied the requests to remove the videos.

Good on Google.

[Capitalocracy]

10. True. I wonder what will happen when they're no longer requests

but orders.

[Matariki]

11. Yes. Glad of that. And that they post the requests.

The page is interesting. You can view requests by type and country as well as trends/upsurges in requests.

[lonestarnot]

6. The google appears to have said nope, not removing.

[Hutzpa]

7. Trying to cover their nasty action

operating above the law. :wow:

This should go viral let everyone know what we are up against.

[tcaudilllg]

8. Confederates of Comrade Gadhafi.

[mwooldri]

9. Sadly my homeland (UK) doesn't come off too well either.

An awful lot of government requests for Google service information to be removed were done on the grounds of "national security".

However Google says the requests for the police brutality video takedown was declined. Good.

[coalition_unwilling]

16. The UK has a 'state secrets' law that conceivably could come

into play, I would think. Not sure what is required for 'state secrets' to be invoked.

[Warren DeMontague]

12. and now we know about that, too.

the so-called 'progressive' authoritarians in a gimungous hurry to censor the internet because they're mad about all the nekkid ladies, would do well to take note.

[AsahinaKimi]

13. I don't really find this suprising

As for removal of videos, this is the kind of thing CHINA does... not to mention banning websites like Youtube and others. There are some in our government who probably believe China is on to a good thing.

[Inuca]

14. Interesting, I did not know

that information is available. But you do realize that the data does NOT refer to current events, right? It covers January through June of this year only.

[Matariki]

17. Yep. If you click on the "Govenment Requests" link in the left nav

there is more detailed info. It's interesting to note that the requests in the period measured this year have gone up significantly since last year:

United States
We received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove YouTube videos of police brutality, which we did not remove. 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.

The number of content removal requests we received increased by 70% compared to the previous reporting period.

The number of user data requests we received increased by 29% compared to the previous reporting period.