Google is alarmed by government requests to remove political content from search results, fearing that free expression may be at risk. These requests aren’t always from the usual suspects either; Western democracies not typically associated with censorship are participating in the requested removal of political content, says Google’s Senior Policy Analyst, Dorothy Chou. Governments Request Removal of Almost 12,000 Items from Search Index Every six months, Google releases information about government requests to remove content or access private user data as part of their Transparency Report. Over the weekend, data was released for the period of July to December 2011, showing a total of 467 court orders and 561 other requests (by…