Google Deletes YouTube Terrorism Videos

Google has revealed that following complaints from the UK’s Association of Police Officers, it removed around 640 videos from YouTube that allegedly promoted terrorism, during the second half of 2011.

The news was contained in its latest Transparency Report, which discloses requests by international authorities to remove or hand over material.

The firm said it terminated five accounts linked to the suspect videos.

However, the firm said it had rejected many other state requests for action.

Canada's Passport Office was among the organisations rebuffed. It had asked for the removal of a video of a Canadian citizen urinating on his passport and then flushing it down the toilet.

Google also refused to delete six YouTube videos that satirised Pakistan's army and senior politicians. The order had come from the government of Pakistan's Ministry of Information Technology.

Overall, the firm said it had received 461 court orders covering a total of 6,989 items between July and December 2011. It said it had complied with 68% of the orders.

It added that it had received a further 546 informal requests covering 4,925 items, of which it had agreed to 43% of the cases.

Google's senior policy analyst, Dorothy Chou, said the company was concerned by the amount of requests that had been linked to political speech.

"It's alarming not only because free expression is at risk, but because some of these requests come from countries you might not suspect - Western democracies not typically associated with censorship."

(H)