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Last year the Russian authorities have made more inquiries to Google to remove "illegal" information on the net than all other countries in the world put together. This is the regular Transparency Report published by the technology giant every year, quoted by the BBC.
Of institutions in Moscow, 13,000 queries arrived in 2016, while other countries around the world sent a total of 9,000 for the same period, the report said. Requests sent by Russia increased by 478% last year compared to the previous one, and statistically formed well over half of all requests for limiting access to information. The total figure since 2009 is nearly 18,500. The report shows that 85 per cent of Russian inquiries were made to protect "national security." About five per cent are related to "criticism of representatives of power". Nearly 2% are related to "incitement to suicide and other violations of the law." Nearly two-thirds of the requests were satisfied.
In the report, the company gives a number of examples of content blocked by Russia - such as information on terrorist incidents in Grozny, materials from the Islamic State or the Anarchist Cookbook (American book, which provides guidelines for making narcotic and explosive substances from unprotected chemicals and objects).
Most applications were submitted in the second half of 2016, when 11,000 came in. Nearly half (43.4%) of them are related to content in the video sharing network "YouTube". For example, a request from the Interior Ministry has been to block 160 videos uploaded to the platform believed to be extremist. Nearly 1200 of the requests are related to Twitter, according to other company documents cited by RBK. Only Turkey is more active, where nearly 5,500 requests refer specifically to this platform, or just less than half (11,100) of all inquiries to remove or block information. However, Google reports that no content-related inquiries have been received to incriminate Russian officials in corruption. Refusal was also given to requests for removal of tweets sharing "news content for territorial conflicts" and "critics of the former Soviet regime".
"Undoubtedly, Russia is also influenced by new laws, such as the right to be forgotten, piracy, etc. But if we look at the statistics of Google's queries and we're confused about resources and types of threats ... it's mostly about the propaganda of terrorism "This coincides with the corporate policy that guides Google around the world," said Karen Kazariyan, the chief analyst of the Russian Electronic Communications Association, quoted by RBK. According to other experts, the reason is also related to the increased activity of the Russian regulator "Rosomunzor", which in recent months tightens and controls all chat applications. Google has long adhered to the idea that Russia's demands can only be met if there is a judicial decision to do so.
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