{"id":5320,"date":"2012-11-21T09:16:36","date_gmt":"2012-11-21T14:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=5320"},"modified":"2012-11-21T09:16:36","modified_gmt":"2012-11-21T14:16:36","slug":"tt-govtgoogle-debacle-openness-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2012\/11\/tt-govtgoogle-debacle-openness-internet\/","title":{"rendered":"What does the T&T Govt\/Google debacle tell us about the openness of the Internet?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google\u2019s latest Transparency Report was released last week. This post examines freedom of expression and the openness of the Internet.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"http:\/\/www.freedigitalphotos.net\/images\/agree-terms.php?id=10091627\"<\/a>Early last week, Google<\/a> released its latest Transparency Report<\/a> in which it highlighted that the Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) Government had requested the removal of ten YouTube<\/a> videos, which it refused to do. Nine of the videos featured Prime Minister, Hon. Kamla Persad-Bisssessar, dancing with a bottle in hand. The tenth was of a news reporter admonishing the Attorney General, Anand Ramlogan, for being rude.<\/p>\n

Although Google declined the T&T Government\u2019s request, governments worldwide are increasingly requesting the removal of data from a number of Google\u2019s properties\/services. Within the six-month period, January to June 2012, Google received 1,791 requests from governments to remove content from its services, which was a 70% increase from the previous six-month period (Source: Google<\/a>). Hence the T&T incident, along with the countless others that are occurring worldwide, ought to cause us to consider: how truly open is the Internet?<\/em><\/p>\n

Google\u2019s Transparency Report<\/h3>\n

Since 2010 and twice per year, Google has been releasing its \u201cTransparency Reports<\/a><\/em>\u201d, with the goal of highlighting, through its tools and services, incidents when the free flow of information might have been challenged by the actions of others. The report is divided into three main sections, as summarised in Table 1.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Table 1: Key reporting sections of Google\u2019s Transparency Report (Source: Google)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

In a recent article published<\/a> by Google on its June 2012 Transparency Report, it noted \u201cgovernment surveillance is on the rise\u201d<\/em>. There were 20,938 inquiries from government entities around the world to hand over user data between January and June 2012, which has been steadily increasing since the inception of the report (Figure 1).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Figure 1: Number government requests worldwide for Google to hand over data between July 2009 and June 2012 (Source: Google)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Additionally, with regard to requests for the removal of information from Google\u2019s services, the grounds upon which those requests are being made are diverse, and for most of them, their numbers have also been growing since 2010 (Table 2).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Table 2: Number of items Google was asked to removed from its services via removal requests, between 2010 and June 2012 (Source: Google)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Further, it is important to highlight that although governments are increasingly requesting data to be removed, Google has not been acquiescing to every request. As reflected in Figure 2, Google has fully or partially compiled with under 70% of the requests since 2009, and for the first half of 2012, that figure is under 50%.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Figure 2: Percentage compliance with removal requests received from governments worldwide (Source: Google)<\/p><\/div>\n

Issues and concerns highlighted by the Transparency Report<\/h3>\n

To varying degrees, Google rigorously examines all removal requests and data requests that are submitted, and determines the extent to which it will act on them. However, the volume and nature of the requests does highlight a number of growing tensions which affect the openness of the Internet, the most obvious of which are:<\/p>\n