Indian government’s requests to block Facebook content rises threefold in

The report, which covers 93 countries and encompasses the period from January to June this year, shows the United States far outstripping the others with 26,579 requests for user data-of which Facebook provided 17,577 or just under 80%. “We scrutinise each request we receive for legal sufficiency, whether from an authority in the USA, Europe, or elsewhere”. Facebook produced data in response to 79 percent of requests in the last half of 2014.

Governments around the world are increasingly asking Facebook to cough up personal data on its users. This was up from 2,110 requests in the same period a a year ago and 1,975 in the first half of 2013. There was also a massive increase in the number of pieces of content that were taken down or “restricted” for violating local laws – a rise of 112 percent.

It’s likely that, for the foreseeable future, more countries will continue to request data about users and shield content in greater and greater numbers.

Every six months, Facebook releases a report that details when and how global governments make requests for data on the social media platform. “If a request appears to be deficient or overly broad, we push back hard and will fight in court, if necessary”, Facebook wrote. Facebook received nearly 10,000 of such requests, and it complied with about 84 percent of them. In a blog post written by Chris Sonderby, the company’s deputy general counsel, the company laid out the significant increase in government inquiry and content restrictions across the globe.

India and Turkey were responsible for most of the content taken down for violating local laws. The requests often consisted of basic subscriber information, IP addresses or account content, including people’s posts online.

Interestingly the U.S.is the only country in the report where the types of requests are broken down by type. The social network blocked 20,568 pieces of content in the first six months of this year, up from 9,707 in the second half of 2014.

You can view Facebook’s latest Government Requests Report, mapped by region, here.

The company also used the report to reiterate its refusal to provide back doors for governments into user data.