GitHub recorded 708 government takedown requests in the first half of 2026, compared with 98 during all of 2025. The company says the jump mainly reflects broader reporting and tracking rather than a matching rise in content removals.
GitHub now counts every request it receives, including duplicates about the same content and requests that cite local law, its terms of service or no specific legal basis. Actual takedowns under local law or platform rules remain relatively rare, and jurisdiction-specific requests continue to appear in a public repository.
The update also tracks state laws affecting open source, including California rules on AI content provenance and age assurance. GitHub says changes to the California AI Transparency Act removed a proposed license-revocation mechanism that conflicted with irrevocable open-source licenses, although implementation questions remain. The figures are therefore best read as a measure of government reporting activity, not as 708 separate removals.