Google removes 640 videos believed to incite terrorism

Google removed 640 videos from YouTube in the second half of last year amid fears they promoted terrorism.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) made a request for five user accounts to be closed for allegedly promoting terrorism.

Google agreed and deleted the 640 videos.

Details were released in the internet giant's latest Transparency Report which reveals requests by international authorities to remove material.

Though Google agreed with Acpo's request, it repeatedly refused to comply with others.

Canada's Passport Office asked for footage to be removed of a Canadian citizen urinating on his passport and then flushing it down the toilet.

Google refused and also would not bow to a request from Pakistan's Ministry of Information Technology to delete six videos satirising its army and senior politicians.

However, the search engine did take action at certain times.

A German court order resulted in the removal of 898 search results linking to forums and blogs containing statements about a government agency and one of its employees that the court determined were not credible.

Google also received a request to remove 70 YouTube videos for allegedly violating the German Children and Young Persons Act.

It restricted some of the videos from view in Germany in accordance with local laws.

Google acceded to a request to block more than 100 YouTube videos in Thailand allegedly insulting its monarchy - which is a crime in the country

Google terminated four YouTube accounts responsible for videos that allegedly contained threatening and harassing content after complaints by different US law enforcement agencies.

Hungary, Russia and Turkey had 0% of their requests partially or fully complied with where as 93% of America's requests were successful according to Google's figures.