Legal:Notices received from search engines

From Wikimedia Foundation Governance Wiki

For context, see these two blog posts:

"Wikipedia pages censored in European search results" (by WMF General Counsel Geoff Brigham and Legal Counsel Michelle Paulson, August 6, 2014)
"European court decision punches holes in free knowledge" (by WMF Executive Director Lila Tretikov, August 6, 2014)


Notices received from search engines

The information below details notices received by the Wikimedia Foundation when search engines intend to indefinitely remove links to Wikipedia articles and other online Wikimedia media content from their results. We have also received removal notices concerning other types of pages, such as discussion and user pages. The number of links removed for each type of page for which we have received removal notices can be found in the table below.

We do not know who requested each removal. Please note that the subject of the affected webpage may not be the individual or organization that made the underlying request -- we believe anyone can request the removal of a webpage from search results.

The community is, as always, free to exercise its editorial discretion and address the referred content as appropriate under community policies and practices. Search engines do not inform delisted service providers (like us) what search terms we have been delisted for, or the reason for the delisting, so we do not know whether specific changes to the content might affect the delisting.

We are not aware of other search engines’ processes or the number of requests they are receiving and granting. Search engines are not required by law to provide notices, so we appreciate the companies who share our commitment to free speech and transparency. Compelled censorship is unacceptable, but compelled censorship without notice is unforgivable.

Content removal notices for all wikis

Projects Affected Notices July 1-Dec 31, 2014 Links removed July 1-Dec 31, 2014 Notices Jan 1-June 30, 2015 Links removed Jan 1-June 30, 2015 Notices July 1-Dec 31, 2015 Links removed July 1-Dec 31, 2015 Notices Jan 1-June 30, 2016 Links removed Jan 1-June 30, 2016 Notices July 1-Dec 31, 2016 Links removed July 1-Dec 31, 2016 Notices Jan 1- June 30, 2017 Links removed July 1-Dec 31, 2017
Basque WP 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0
Bulgarian WP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Catalan WP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Croatian WP 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Danish WP 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
Dutch WP 4 4 1 1 1 1 0 0
English WP 7 7 2 2 5 6 4 4 11 14
English Wikinews 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Esperanto WP 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0
Finnish WP 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
French WP 5 5 4 4 2 2 3 3 3 3 1
French Wikiquote 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
French Wikiversity 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
German WP 6 7 5 5 2 2 2 2 3 3 1 1
German Wikisource 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Greek Wikpedia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
Hebrew WP 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
Hungarian WP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Indonesian WP 1 1
Italian WP 3 3 0 0 1 1 0 0 1
Italian Wikinews 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0
Norwegian WP 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
Polish WP 2 2 1 1 0 0 0 0
Romanian WP 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Slovak WP 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0
Slovenian WP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Spanish WP 2 2 0 0 1 1 1 1
Wiki Commons 7 8 1 1 1 1 0 0
Wikimedia 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 44 48 16 16 16 17 12 12 19 22 3 3

English Wikipedia

Basque Wikipedia

Croatian Wikipedia

Danish Wikipedia

Dutch Wikipedia

Finnish Wikipedia

French Wikipedia

French Wikiversity

Esperanto Wikipedia

German Wikipedia

Greek Wikipedia

Hebrew Wikipedia

Indonesian Wikipedia

Italian Wikipedia

Italian Wikinews

Norwegian Wikipedia

Polish Wikipedia

Romanian Wikipedia

Slovak Wikipedia

Spanish Wikipedia

Wikimedia

Wikimedia Commons

Non content removal notices for all wikis

Other types of pages removed from search results Notices July 1-Dec 31, 2014 Links removed July 1-Dec 31, 2014 Notices Jan 1-June 30, 2015 Links removed Jan 1-June 30, 2015 Notices July 1-Dec 31, 2015 Links removed July 1-Dec 31, 2015 Notices Jan 1-June 30, 2016 Links removed Jan 1-June 30, 2016 Notices July 1-Dec 31, 2016 Links removed July 1-Dec 31, 2016 Notices Jan 1- June 30, 2017 Links removed July 1-Dec 31, 2017
Discussion pages 6 7 3 3 1 1 6 6 2 2
Governance pages (e.g., Requests for deletion pages, Arbcom cases, etc.) 6 58 5 8 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2
User pages 8 11 5 5 4 4 2 3 5 6 1 1
Totals 20 76 13 16 6 6 9 10 8 9 3 3