Google has come out with its compliance report for November 2021. As per the report, Google received 26,087 complaints from users and removed 61,114 pieces of content based on those complaints in November 2021. The company also informed that it had removed 375,468 pieces of content in November 2021 as a result of automated detection.
Earlier, in October 2021, Google had received 24,569 complaints from users and removed 48,594 pieces of content based on those complaints, while 384,509 pieces of content were removed as a result of automated detection.
As per the latest report, these complaints relate to third-party content that is believed to violate local laws or personal rights on Google’s significant social media intermediaries (SSMI) platforms. Some requests also related to infringement of intellectual property rights, while others claim violation of local laws prohibiting types of content on grounds such as defamation.
The content removal was done under several categories, including copyright (60,387), trademark (535), circumvention (131), court order (56) and graphic sexual content (5). Google explained that a single complaint may specify multiple items that potentially relate to the same or different pieces of content, and each unique URL in a specific complaint is considered an individual “item” that is removed. For user complaints, the “removal actions” number represents the number of items where a piece of content was removed or restricted during the one-month reporting period as a result of a specific complaint, while for automated detection, the “removal actions” number represents the number of instances where Google removed content or prevented the bad actor from accessing the Google service as a result of automated detection processes.
In addition, the company also uses automated detection processes for some of products to prevent the dissemination of harmful content such as child sexual abuse material and violent extremist content.
As per Google, automated detection enables it to act more quickly and accurately to enforce its guidelines and policies. These removal actions may result in removing the content or terminating a bad actor’s access to the Google service. Under the IT rules, large digital platforms, with over 5 million users, have to publish periodic compliance reports every month, mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken thereon. The report needs to also include the number of specific communication links or parts of the information that the intermediary has removed or disabled access to in pursuance of any proactive monitoring conducted by using automated tools.
