We’re back again to unveil Automattic’s latest transparency report covering the period between July 1, 2021 – December 31, 2021. Across both WordPress.com and Tumblr, we’re publishing data about government requests for user information, government demands for removal of content, as well as national security requests and notices of copyright and trademark infringement.
During the previous reporting period, we provided an overview of some of the design and formatting changes we’ve been making to our reports which we hope will improve the process of reviewing and analyzing the data. This round we’re continuing on that path with additional updates all geared towards a better experience for you and a clearer illustration of the types and volume of requests we receive.
Read on to learn more!
A Brand New Look
Up until now, the landing page for Automattic’s transparency report hinted towards a modern new design while the actual data of our reports was still presented on a theme that we’ve been using for many years. Today we’re bringing the entirety of our report into a new era with design improvements from top to bottom.
You’ll continue to find your starting place for the WordPress.com and Tumblr reports on the home page, but as you click through you’ll discover a cleaner layout—built with the WordPress Gutenburg editor—that looks great on desktop or mobile!
These design updates appear throughout the reports for each platform as we continue to unify our data-tracking and reporting processes.
Consistency Throughout
There are still some differences in the presentation of our data for each platform, but we’ve opted for additional changes this round to make comparing numbers a bit easier. Specifically, while you’ll only find data on National Security Letters, IRU Reports, and our Country Block List for WordPress.com, the titles of the following categories have been aligned for both WordPress.com and Tumblr:
- Government Takedown Demands
- Government Information Requests
- Intellectual Property
- Privacy Reports
Most of these changes are nominal, however there’s one important distinction to make for Government Takedown Demands. In the Tumblr report, this category was previously referred to as Government and Organization Removal Requests. As noted in past reports, that data included requests from non-governmental organizations who put dedicated resources towards reporting potential violations of Tumblr’s guidelines.
While any large influx of complaints is worth considering more closely, the data from organizations was included in the total numbers listed by the originating country and was not clearly distinguishable from government requests. We felt that this approach obscured the primary goal of the report which is to provide transparency around the often extrajudicial requests we receive from governments. As such, we’ve updated both the title and the data this round so that only requests coming from government bodies are included. We hope this makes the information clearer and more useful going forward.
As ever, our goal is to make all of this information helpful and interesting. If you have questions or ideas to suggest for upcoming transparency reports please let us know!
Transparency Report 