INTERVENTION: Governments around the world are making more demands of Google to remove content and turn over information about its users.
THE LEADER: Police prosecutors, courts and other government agencies in the U.S. submitted 187 requests to remove content from July through December, more than doubling from 92 requests the previous six months.
THE BACKDROP: Many requests are legitimate attempts to enforce laws governing hot-button issues ranging from personal privacy to hate speech. But Google says it increasingly fields requests from agencies around the world trying to use their power to suppress political opinions and other material they don’t like.
