| Country | Court Orders | Requests from government agencies or law enforcement | Number of sites specified | Percentage of requests where content was removed due to a violation of our policies | Percentage of requests where content was removed solely in response to the demand |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0% | 0% |
| France | 0 | 4 | 4 | 75% | 0% |
| Germany | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0% | 0% |
| India | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0% | 33% |
| Japan | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0% | 0% |
| Kazakhstan | 0 | 1 | 1 | 100% | 0% |
| New Zealand | 0 | 1 | 1 | 100% | 0% |
| Pakistan | 0 | 5 | 16 | 20% | 20% |
| Poland | 0 | 2 | 11 | 100% | 0% |
| Russia | 0 | 48 | 40 | 42% | 42% |
| Spain | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0% | 0% |
| Turkey | 0 | 29 | 31 | 17% | 72% |
| Total | 1 | 98 | 117 | 33% | 43% |
For demands that come from Pakistan, Russia, and Turkey, we geoblock the specific content or site(s) at issue, so that WordPress.com remains otherwise accessible in the country. You can read a bit more about our approach to those kinds of takedown demands here.
Recent Examples
Here are a few recent examples of takedown demands that we received:
Australia
- The Government of South Australia requested that we remove content highlighting alleged mismanagement by departmental employees, describing it as “highly offensive and defamatory.”
Russia
- The Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (ROSKOMNADZOR) demanded the removal of song lyrics from a site.
India
- A police department in India requested the removal of a site that is critical of a university and it’s faculty stating the site “published objectionable / defamatory remarks against [the university] causing harm and damage to the victim / complainant organization”
Transparency Report 