According to a transparency report released by Google, western governments, including that of the United States, appear to be stepping up efforts to censor Internet search results and YouTube videos, CNN reported.

"It's alarming not only because the right to free expression is at risk, but because some of these requests are coming from countries you might not expect this from-- Western democracies not typically associated with censorship," said Dorothy Chou, a senior policy analyst at Google.

During the second half of 2011, U.S. agencies asked Google to remove 6,192 individual pieces of content from its search results, blog posts or archives of online videos, according to the report. The tech company did comply, at least in part, with 42% of the removal requests coming from the U.S.

The company said: "We review each request to make sure that it complies with both the spirit and the letter of the law, and we may refuse to produce information or in some cases will try to narrow down the request."

(China.org.cn June 29, 2012)

据美国有线新闻网报道，谷歌公司日前发布透明度报告称，包括美国在内的西方国家正大力审查网络搜索结果和YouTube视频。

谷歌高级政策分析师桃乐茜•周表示：“自由言论受到威胁令人担忧，不仅如此，西方民主国家本与审查制度无缘，它们也发出请求删除言论，让人始料不及。”

报告称，2011年下半年，美国相关机构要求谷歌删除6192条搜索结果、博客网贴、在线视频等内容，谷歌公司也的确根据要求，删除了至少42%的相关内容。

谷歌表示：“我们会审查每份请求，保证其与当地法律意旨及明文规定相一致，某些情况下，我们会拒绝提供信息或对其要求不予完全满足。”