Google publishes its transparency report in compliance with IT Rules

Google India has published its first transparency report in accordance with the Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules (“IT Rules”), 2021, which includes details of complaints received from users in India and the actions taken across Google’s platforms that are classified as “significant social media intermediaries” (“SSMIs”) under the Rules.

The report currently covers complaints received and actioned between April 1-30 this year. Google said there will be a two-month lag for reporting to allow sufficient time for data processing and validation.

The total number of complaints received by Google in the reported period was 27,762, of which 96.2 per cent were related to copyright issues, 1.3 per cent were related to trademarks, 1 per cent defamation, 0.4 per cent were related to counterfeit issues and 0.4 per cent related to circumvention.

The number of removal actions taken by Google based on these complaints were 59,350.

Each unique URL in a specific complaint is considered an individual “item”. A single complaint may specify multiple items that potentially relate to the same or different pieces of content. “When we receive complaints from individual users regarding allegedly unlawful or harmful content, we review the complaint to determine if the content violates our community guidelines or content policies, or meets local legal requirements for removal,” Google said in the report.

Copyright issues include requests related to alleged copyright infringement, received under notice and takedown laws such as the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Trademark requests relate to claims of infringement and misuse of trademarks.

Defamation requests are related to harm to reputation, while counterfeit requests are related to sale or promotion for sale of counterfeit goods. Complaints under circumvention relate to content with tools to bypass copyright technological protection measures.

In future reports, data on removals as a result of automated detection, as well as data relating to impersonation and graphic sexual content complaints received post May 25, 2021, will be included, according to the technology giant.

“We have a long history of providing transparency into the different types of requests we receive from around the world, and how we respond. All of these requests are tracked and included in our existing Transparency Report since 2010. This is the first time we will publish a monthly transparency report in accordance with the new IT Rules, and will continue to publish more details as we refine our reporting processes for India,” said a Google spokesperson.

Facebook has said it will publish an interim report for the period May 15-June 15 on July 2, and a final one by July 15.

The IT Rules, notified on February 25, ask significant social media intermediaries, or those with over 5 million users, to “publish periodic compliance report every month mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken thereon, and the number of specific communication links or parts of information that the intermediary has removed or disabled access to in pursuance of any proactive monitoring conducted by using automated tools or any other relevant information as may be specified”.