2018: Jan 1 – Jun 30

CountryCourt OrdersRequests from government agencies or law enforcementNumber of sites specifiedPercentage of requests where content was removed due to a violation of our policiesPercentage of requests where content was removed solely in response to the demand
Australia0230%0%
Bangladesh0220%0%
Bosnia and Herzegovina0110%0%
Brazil0110%0%
Colombia0110%0%
France0191542%53%
Germany0990%0%
India012160%0%
Israel055100%0%
Italy011100%0%
Kazakhstan0220%50%
New Zealand0110%0%
Pakistan021232*0%81%
Sweden066100%0%
Russia02869114%80%
Turkey5204829%62%
United Kingdom0220%0%
United States02250%0%
TOTAL5237339018%68%
*While only 232 sites were affected, there was a total of 575 URLs included in their requests.

For demands that come from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, 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 Russian takedown demands here.

Recent Examples

Here are a few recent examples of takedown demands that we received:

Australia

  • The Chief Executive of The Department for Education requested the removal of two “highly offensive and defamatory” sites.

India

  • A police department requested removal of a site for publishing content which they deemed to be “provocative, inflammatory and detrimental to peace and order” and which was allegedly “causing annoyance, hatred, enmity and ill-will among the masses.”

Pakistan

  • The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) demanded the removal of an enormous number of sites which they believe are “blasphemous.” They’ve made similar requests in the past, but the volume of targeted content increased by nearly 650% from last period and cited more individual URLs than any other country.

Russia

  • Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (ROSKOMNADZOR) demanded removal of a site created by a non-violent Islamic group for “containing appeals to participation in mass (public) actions held with infringement of the established order.”