WordPress gets less takedown requests than Google does for its sites
WordPress is one of the largest blogging platforms in the world and, in this role, it's not surprising that it receives quite a few takedown notices for various pages its users post. What is surprising, however, is that it gets a lot less than Google does for WordPress pages.
In Automattic's transparency report we find that in the second half of last year, they received 5,006 takedown requests, which is about the amount Google gets while an engineer boils water for their coffee.
The number is in no way small, but it pales in comparison with the numbers Google gets. In fact, it was a while back that Google said it was asked to remove 1,500 links per minute.
Automattic's report shows that out of the number of links it is asked to remove, it only takes down about half, which is consistent with numbers over the past few years.
TorrentFreak points out, however, that Google receives more takedown requests for WordPress.com than Automattic does. In fact, in the past year, copyright holders asked Google to take down over 13,000 WordPress URLs, compared to less than 10,000 sent to Automattic. This makes little sense.
Twisted way to get things done
If copyright holders really cared about the content that someone is allegedly infringing upon, they'd go to the target and ask those responsible to take it down. Instead, they choose to take down search engine results, which isn't exactly the most logical way to go about things.
"Those numbers aren't entirely surprising for a few reasons. When looking to limit access to material online, complaints will naturally look for the path of least resistance," Automattic told TorrentFreak.
Automattic says it scrutinizes every single DMCA takedown notice for formal validity and fair use considerations, so removal is not guaranteed. Google, on the other hand, has an automated process and there are higher chances the links will disappear than for WordPress to actually take them down.
Not by much, however. Google appears to have whitelisted the blogging platform so only 0.3% of the 13,100 takedown requests received over the past year have been removed.