In April of this year, Google received over 27,700 complaints from individual users in India alleging violations of local laws or personal rights, resulting in the removal of 59,350 pieces of content, according to the company's first monthly transparency report.

Google is one of the first major digital platforms to release a monthly compliance report in accordance with the new IT laws, which took effect on May 26.

The bulk of complaints (96.2 percent) were related to copyright infringement, followed by trademark (1.3 percent), defamation (1.0 percent), and other authorized complaints (1.0 percent). Counterfeiting (0.4 percent) and circumvention (0.4 percent) (0.1 percent).

Large digital platforms with more than five million users would be required to produce monthly compliance reports under the new IT guidelines, detailing the details of complaints received and actions taken.

The number of specific communication connections or sections of material that the intermediary has blocked or disabled access to as a result of any proactive monitoring undertaken using automated methods should also be included in the report.

According to a Google representative, the firm has a long history of being open about the many types of requests it receives from around the world and how it answers.

The company removed a total of 59,350 items as a result of the complaints, with 98.4 percent of them being linked to copyright infringement. A single complaint can include a request to remove a number of URLs. This report, however, does not provide information on government demands for content material deletions.

Google stated, “we have included authorities requests for content material removals in our current Transparency Report on a biannual basis since 2010, and we will continue to do so in the future. The final report on this was printed in January 2021”.

“We have a long history of providing openness into the many types of requests we receive from all over the world, as well as the manner we respond. Since 2010, we've been tracking all of these requests and including them in our Transparency Report", said a Google spokesperson.

This is the first time we'll publish a monthly transparency report in accordance with the new IT Guidelines, and we'll continue to provide more details as we fine-tune our India reporting methods.
Google also stated that there may be a two-month delay in reporting in order to allow for data processing and confirmation.

Information about removals due to account of automated detection, as well as impersonation and explicit sensual content complaints received after May 25, 2021, may be included in future experiences.

“We're committed to making improvements in future editions of the report based on suggestions from all stakeholders, including providing more granular information,” it said in the report.