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 | 1 | 0% | 0% |
Brazil | 0 | 1 | 1 | 100% | 0% |
France | 0 | 2 | 2 | 50% | 50% |
Germany | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0% | 0% |
Ghana | 0 | 2 | 1 | 50% | 0% |
India | 2 | 3 | 5 | 0% | 20% |
Italy | 0 | 1 | 1 | 100% | 0% |
Malaysia | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0% | 0% |
Mexico | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0% | 0% |
Moldova | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0% | 0% |
Pakistan | 0 | 11 | 38 | 18% | 55% |
Peru | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0% | 0% |
Russia | 0 | 109 | 80 | 52% | 28% |
South Korea | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0% | 0% |
Taiwan | 0 | 1 | 1 | 100% | 0% |
Turkey | 23 | 0 | 25 | 30% | 57% |
United States | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0% | 33% |
TOTAL | 26 | 142 | 167 | 42% | 31% |
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:
Pakistan
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority requested the removal of a site for posting content that was “harming the reputation” of a government official.
Moldova
- The Information and Security Service of the Republic of Moldova requested the removal of a site for “publications that lead to panic, hatred, and social division”.
India
- India’s Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology demanded the blocking of a site for glorifying terrorism and “inciting disaffection among the people towards the Indian Government”.