It seems like governments around the world now are eager to access personal information through Facebook. The latest report of social network giant released that government data requests to Facebook achieved a new record at highest level of 2 years.
The social media giant said in a report on Wednesday that government demands for its user data dramatically rose in the first half of 2015.
In detail, from 35,051 requests in the second half of 2014, global government requests for data risen 18% to 41,214 in the first half of this year. Actually, an up-ward trend began at least two years ago when the company began releasing account data.
In addition, the amount of content restricted for violating local law also is up more than 112% over the second half of 2014. Such restricted content covers anything from Nazi propaganda in Germany to violent crimes. Nearly 75% of this is coming from users in India, where the Facebook’s Computer Emergency Response Team is considered to censor social media posts critical of religion or the state.
Facebook reported that government demands for its user data dramatically increased in the first half of 2015
Ranked the first on this list, the US is deserved the global leader in requesting, with 17,577 total requests affecting 26,579 users. It comprises more than 60 percent of requests globally – up from 21,731 accounts in the second half of 2014.
France, Germany and Britain also follow the US to make up a large percentage of the requests and had far more content restricted in 2015. Total number of data requests are 5,115; 2,520; and 2,344; in turns.
India and Turkey takes responsibility for most of the content violating local laws. India had 15,155 pieces of content restricted – nearly triple the amount in the second half of 2014 – while Turkey had 4,496, up from 3,624.
Explain about these mass numbers, Facebook said that governments have increasingly relied on Facebook‘s user data to help investigate criminal cases, which are responsible for most of the requests. In fact, government access to personal data from telephone and Web companies has become a controversy privacy issue since former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed surreptitious surveillance programs.
However, Facebook also claimed that it only responds to valid criminal cases and vets each individual request before responding as well as refuses to provide certain types of data which is not legally mandated enough to do so.
Facebook emphasized that it “does not provide any government with ‘back doors’ or direct access to people’s data”. They consider each request for legal carefully, no matter where it comes from, the government of the US, Europe or elsewhere. If a request appears to be illegal or problematic, they send it back hard and “will to fight in court if necessary”.