Automattic’s 23rd biannual transparency report is now available, covering the period from July through December 2024. This report dives into the intersection of tech and intellectual property, user privacy, government takedowns, content moderation, and much more.
The Challenge of Mass Takedown Spam: Balancing Protection & Open Platforms
At Automattic, we believe that the internet thrives when creators, businesses, and bloggers can share their work freely without fear of unnecessary content removals. One of the biggest challenges creators face online is the misuse of intellectual property claims. Overly aggressive and automated takedown notices disproportionately affect independent creators, bloggers, and small businesses—those who lack the resources to fight back. For this reason, Automattic isn’t just processing trademark takedown notices mechanically. We manually review each case to ensure we are actively defending fair use and preventing abuse of copyright mechanisms. Safeguarding free expression while protecting trademark holders is a difficult but important challenge—one that has become even more complex in recent months.
During this reporting period, there has been a sharp rise in the use of trademark reports being used to report gambling spam sites. These reports are sent in large volumes with duplicate notices, often targeting the same material across many sites. We received 13,554 total trademark notices about gambling spam across 14,327 unique sites. When gambling spam numbers were excluded, the trademark reports totaled a mere 129 trademark notices.
This volume places undue strain on platforms like Automattic, as these types of complainants flood our trademark queues with spammy or bad-faith claims. On top of this, within this reporting period, a total of 7,426 trademark notices were determined to be non-actionable. These figures highlight the sheer volume of non-actionable claims, and reinforce the importance of human review to identify these and push back where appropriate. We strive to balance the ability for content creators to create, while still responding swiftly to legitimate claims of trademark infringement.
Evolving Challenges in Content Moderation
As trademark takedowns increase, we’re also noticing evolving trends in privacy-related requests. In the most recent period, data deletion requests increased by 21%, while data access requests decreased by 37%. We take these seriously, and have made improvements to our internal workflows, resulting in these requests being processed 61% faster than in the previous period. At the same time, user appeals have almost tripled, and copyright takedown reports increased by 193%, averaging 1,916 reports per month. These rising volumes place increasing pressure on platforms like ours, where human review remains essential for assessing reports and preventing abuse. As trends shift, we are committed to refining our processes to ensure that genuine user concerns receive the attention they deserve.
The internet is often legislated for big players, creating compliance challenges that disproportionately impact smaller companies. When bad actors flood reporting systems with spam or duplicate claims, it further strains resources, making fair and equitable enforcement even more difficult. As we navigate these challenges, it’s important for us to advocate for public policies that are fair, proportional, and transparent. We are a user-first platform, and will always fight to protect your rights against abusive claims.
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We welcome you to take a look through the data. As always, let us know if you have comments, suggestions, or requests.
The full transparency report is available here.
Transparency Report 