Including two Islamic countries ... A list of the top 20 countries have asked Google to delete items they did not like

Every year, Google receives hundreds of requests from governments around the world demanding the removal of content hosted on its platforms, be it a blog, YouTube video or anything else, in the form of court orders or written requests.

Comparitech, the UK's online search site, used Google data and recorded 115,301 search requests received between 2009 and 2018, in addition to the reasons given for the deletion request.

Google stated that most of the reasons mentioned by these governments were related to national security and defamation, adding that they evaluate every request and do not respond to all of them.

Ranking of countries from lowest to most requested:

20.Pakistan: 292 applications, more than half due to religious offenses.

19.Netherlands - 304 requests, mostly due to privacy and security concerns.

18. Australia - 393 applications, the most popular reason is defamation.

17 - Thailand - 575 requests, 94.96% due to criticism of the government.

The country also has strict laws criminalizing talk of the ruling family, which makes insulting, mutilating, or threatening any member of the royal family a criminal offense.

16. China - 627 applications, most of which refer to violence.

China is notorious for censoring all content that harms the Communist Party, and is likely to be on the list because of Google's 2010 ban on the country, so it is not widely used by citizens.

15. Japan - 720 applications, three out of four requests refer to defamation.

14. Argentina - 737 applications The most common cause is violence.

13. Canada - 768 applications, the most common reason being fraud.

12. Spain - 1,065 applications, more than half of applications indicate privacy and security concerns.

11. Israel - 1436 applications, most of which cited defamation.

10. Italy - 1691 applications and more than half of these requests were related to defamation.

9. South Korea - 2098 applications, most of which were privacy and security.

8 France 2291 applications, and national security was the most common reason.

7. Germany - 3197 applications, with nearly half of those requests referred to defamation.

6. Britain - 3894 applications, with the most popular reason (about 40%) being national security.

5. India - 5308 requests, the most popular reason is defamation.

India regularly closes the Internet in Kashmir, a disputed region on its border, in a bid to stem the spread of protests.

India cut off telephone and Internet lines in Kashmir in early August 2019 because it abolished autonomy in the region.

4.Brazil -6455 applications, the most common reason is defamation.

3. United States - 7964 applications, the most cited reason being defamation.

2.Turkey - 10379 requests, the most common reason for content removal is defamation.

1. Russia - 61,471 applications, accounting for more than half of all content removal requests received by Google from governments in nine years, the most popular reason is national security.

It is noteworthy that Russia formally introduced the law "sovereign Internet", which allows the government to isolate the entire state from the rest of the Web.

It also requires Russian Internet providers to install devices to allow authorities to locate and block the source of traffic.

Critics said the move could allow President Vladimir Putin to censor and shut down the Internet, as in China.