For demands that come from Pakistan, Russia, and Turkey, we will generally geoblock the specific content or site(s) at issue, so that WordPress.com remains otherwise accessible in the country. However, in cases of particularly egregious censorship, we have pushed back and do push back where possible. You can read a bit more about our approach to those kinds of takedown demands here.
Recent Examples
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brazil | 0 | 2 | 1 | 100% | 0% |
| France | 0 | 2 | 4 | 50% | 50% |
| Germany | 1 | 4 | 5 | 20% | 20% |
| Malaysia | 0 | 4 | 2 | 50% | 0% |
| Mexico | 0 | 1 | 1 | 100% | 0% |
| Netherlands | 0 | 2 | 2 | 100% | 0% |
| Pakistan | 0 | 4 | 6 | 25% | 0% |
| Poland | 0 | 1 | 117 | 100% | 0% |
| Republic of Chile | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0% | 0% |
| Republic of Korea | 0 | 1 | 1 | 100% | 0% |
| Russia | 0 | 94 | 60 | 18% | 56% |
| Sri Lanka | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0% | 0% |
| Turkey | 25 | 0 | 33 | 4% | 64% |
| TOTAL | 26 | 117 | 234 | 21% | 50% |
Here are some recent examples of takedown demands that we received:
Pakistan
- The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority demanded the removal of a site that contains journalistic content critical of the Pakistani government and the Pakistan Army.
Russia
- We received multiple takedown demands from the Russian Government concerning LGBT+ content, including a non-profit website aimed at providing social, legal, and emergency assistance to individuals within the LGBT+ community.
- We continue to receive numerous takedown demands from the Russian Government relating to the war in Ukraine, including journalistic sites that are critical of Russia’s invasion and a site owned by a Ukrainian who was promoting an art exhibition containing pro-Ukrainian artwork.
Transparency Report 