Study Features Higher Government Censorship on YouTube Related to Google

The internet has turned into a phenomenal platform for free speech, allowing diverse opinions to flourish like never before. In any case, not every person concurs with the perspectives shared on the web, frequently leading to heated debates and strong disagreements.
In specific occurrences, governments find it necessary to intervene and request the removal of specific content from their jurisdictions. Over a five-year period, data reveals that governments are more inclined to demand the removal of controversial films from YouTube than from Google Search results.
The review analyzed the content removal requests received by Google during a five-year period, starting in 2020, and found that Web closures and material removal have grown frequent. Surfshark is a well-known VPN service provider. A study of more than 300,000 takedown requests from courts and governments around the world found that 54% were about YouTube content, 31% were for Search, and the other 15% were for all other Google services combined.
As per the review, Russia drove in takedown entries for YouTube and Google Search, trailed by India with 8,000 requests for the video-sharing site and Turkey with 6,000 requests during the last five years. In a major assault on search results, South Korea ranked second, behind only Russia, with nearly 16,000 demands to remove information. Ignoring Russia’s enormous data manipulation doesn’t change the fact that 70% of Google’s contributions came from YouTube and Search queries combined.
Fascinating Outcomes: How Might the Decade Shape Up?
Despite the fact that there is not a great reason for content removal, Surfshark’s research does classify them into a few categories. Defamation was the top cause in 2020, and fraud was one of the key ones in 2023, out of five years where information was gathered; privacy and security were prominent reasons in four of those years. There were 96,000 entries from countries citing national security as the cause for deletion.
Despite the fact that there are legitimate motivations to demand the removal of data, it ought to be noticed that Surfshark’s review may not give an extensive view. For instance, just 150 nations’ information were checked on, and entries for 2024 were tracked until June. Furthermore, the number of requests rather than the quantity of products in each request is the primary emphasis of the study. Russia might have asked for each piece of content, while the countries with fewer submissions may have actually requested more deletions.
Notwithstanding, when looking at which countries restrict access to YouTube and Search, the US isn’t exactly a top contender. The full study summary is available on Surfshark’s website.