Google’s transparency: a good start, but could be better

In an effort to highlight the issue of government censorship Google has put on an online tool that lists the number of government requests for content to be removed from Google’s services. While it is admirable that Google sheds more light on online censorship, its tool would be even better if it also included more information on how and why removal requests were granted or denied. It would also be interesting to see how many private sector requests for content removal were made to Google.

Including private sector requests for the removal of content from Google’s services would give us a valuable look into the Notice and Takedown system of Google. It would shed more light on the actual scope of Google’s NTD efforts and its motivations for removing or not removing content. Information from the world’s biggest information society service provider could prove to be valuable in the debate about the liability of ISPs.

On a different note: an unfortunate side effect of Google’s tool is that by releasing it, Google is informing unwitting government officials about the possibilities for removing content, which might put additional pressure on the freedom of speech.