According to a report by the Internet search giant, Google has received government requests for removal of 358 items from its services, including YouTube and Orkut, during the January-June period.

As many as 255 item removal requests cited government criticism as the reason, said the Google Transparency Report. The government had asked Google to remove 236 items from Orkut and 19 items from YouTube for the same reason, it added

ther reasons include defamation (39 requests), privacy and security (20 requests), impersonation (14 requests), hate speech (8 requests), pornography (3 requests) and national security (1 request).

The information assumes significance in the backdrop of the raging controversy over the screening of content on social networking sites. Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal has asked them to screen derogatory, defamatory and inflammatory content about political leaders and religion.

The report added that "we declined the majority of these requests and only locally restricted videos thatappeared to violate local lawsprohibiting speech that couldincite enmity between communities".

According to the report, Orkut topped the list of products for which content/item removal requests were received with 264 requests.

The report said, Google received requests from the state and the local law enforcement agencies to remove YouTube videos that displayed protests against social leaders or used offensive language in reference to religious leaders.

It said "In addition, we received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove 236 communities and profiles from Orkut (Google's social networking site) that were critical of a local politician. We did not comply with this request, since the content did not violate our community standards or local law,"