Government Takedown Demands

WordPress.com routinely receives content removal requests from governments and law enforcement agencies worldwide. These requests may allege that the reported content is in violation of local law(s), or the agency may ask us to review the reported content against WordPress.com policies or Terms of Service. The Transparency Report contains data on all government agency removal requests for each 6 month period noted in the sidebar. 

Evaluating Government Takedown Requests 

We carefully review all government takedown requests, and are unable to process overly broad or vague requests. Court orders must be submitted in accordance with our legal guidelines, and takedown requests must clearly identify the content in question.

We first review any reported content in accordance with our policies or Terms of Service. The percentage of requests where content was removed does not include cases where content was removed for violating our policies or Terms of Service. 

We do not remove reported content if it does not violate our policies or Terms of Service, however we may restrict content where it is alleged to be in violation of local law(s). See the Content Restrictions section below for more information. 

Content Restrictions 

When we receive a government-mandated demand or order to block access to content in a country due to alleged violation of local law(s), but the content does not breach WordPress.com policies or Terms of Service, we may geographically restrict access to that content for users and visitors with IP addresses originating from that country. For more details about takedown demands that result in geoblocking, see our country blocks page.

Where content has been geographically restricted, we provide users of the affected URL or site with a notification that the content has been restricted, the impacted country, and the authority that requested the content block.

For detailed information on WordPress.com government takedown requests, please select a time period from the sidebar.

The graph and totals below represent the number of government takedown demands we received from governments and law enforcement agencies between July 1, 2013 – June 30, 2025.