Google removed 104,285 pieces of bad content based on user complaints in January this year — an increase from 94,173 pieces of bad content it removed in December, the tech giant said in its monthly report in compliance with the new India IT Rules 2021.
The tech giant received 33,995 complaints from users in India in January. These complaints were related to third-party content that is believed to violate local laws or personal rights on various Google platforms.
“The complaints consist of various categories. Some requests may allege infringement of intellectual property rights, while others claim violation of local laws prohibiting types of content on grounds such as defamation,” Google said in a statement.
The 104,285 pieces of content were removed under various categories like Copyright, Trademark, Court Order, Graphic Sexual Content, Circumvention, and others.
Google said that it also removed 401,374 pieces of content as part of automated detection in the above-mentioned period.
“In addition to reports from our users, we invest heavily in fighting harmful content online and use technology to detect and remove it from our platforms,” it said in its monthly compliance report.
“This includes using automated detection processes for some of our products to prevent the dissemination of harmful content such as child sexual abuse material and violent extremist content,” it added.
In accordance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules), Google, along with other social media platforms, is mandated to publish monthly transparency reports with details of complaints received from users in India and the actions taken, as well as removal actions taken as a result of automated detection.
Under the new IT rules 2021, big digital and social media platforms — with more than 5 million users — have to publish monthly compliance reports.
“We evaluate content reported to us under our Community Guidelines, content policies, and/or legal policies,” said Google.
