In a newly released dataset covering the second half of 2012, Google reports a record amount of total government requests worldwide to remove content from the company’s sites and services. As usual, under the “Notes” section, Google provides some potentially humorous insight on why governments want certain content to be removed.

Google noted wryly: “We received a request [from Argentina] to remove a YouTube video that allegedly defames the [Argentine] President by depicting her in a compromising position. We age-restricted the video in accordance with YouTube's Community Guidelines.”

It didn’t take us long to find the video in question, by the Miami-based Argentine-Venezuelan rock band The Rockadictos. The band's September 2012 music video (genuinely NSFW) depicts a CGI version of the Argentine president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, engaging in lewd behavior.

Unlike the previous six-month period, the United States did not make the most Google requests. The new top spot went to Turkey, which requested that 8,751 pieces of content be removed. Google complied with 62 percent of such requests. The Turkish requests largely came from 16 requests by the government to look into possible copyright infringement. In its report, Google said it “removed 6,851 search results, which we determined to fall within the scope of the order.”

“From July to December 2012, we received 2,285 government requests to remove 24,179 pieces of content—an increase from the 1,811 requests to remove 18,070 pieces of content [across all countries worldwide] that we received during the first half of 2012,” wrote Susan Infantino, the company’s legal director in a Thursday blog post.

Takedown breakdown

Google also complied with removing the highly insulting “Innocence of Muslims” film in Turkey and other nations because of concerns that the film might spawn unrest in parts of the global Islamic community.

“We received 17 requests from the Telecommunications Communication Presidency of the Information and Communications Technologies Authority to remove 63 YouTube videos and 22 Blogger blog posts, all due to alleged criticism of [founder of the modern Turkish Republic, Kemal Atatürk], the government, or national identity and values,” Google added. “We restricted Turkish users from accessing 52 percent of the YouTube videos. We did not remove content in response to the requests relating to Blogger blog posts.”

Infantino also noted a “sharp increase” in takedown requests from Brazil—which issued an average of 3.5 court orders per day—largely as a result of the country’s municipal elections last fall.

“Nearly half of the total requests—316 to be exact—called for the removal of 756 pieces of content related to alleged violations of the Brazilian Electoral Code, which forbids defamation and commentary that offends candidates,” she added. “We’re appealing many of these cases on the basis that the content is protected by freedom of expression under the Brazilian Constitution.”