Facebook says government requests for its users data is on the rise — and so is the amount of restricted content.
In the social network s third transparency report, which it released Tuesday, Facebook said global requests for user data was up 24 percent in the first half of the year from the second half of last year. It also said the amount of content restricted because of new laws rose 19 percent.
The Government Requests report s findings aren t surprising; its release comes on the heels of governments push for greater access to Internet users data. For example, as we mentioned yesterday, Britain s GCHQ chief wants greater cooperation from companies such as Facebook and Twitter in order to fight terrorism, he said. Russia and Australia each are trying to gain more access to online users information.
Facebook said 15,433 of the time period s 34,946 requests came from the U.S. Of the U.S. requests, the company cooperated and produced some sort of data 80.15 percent of the time.
Facebook mentions in the blog post accompanying its transparency report that it supports the USA Freedom Act, which aims to rein in NSA spying. The company also said it supports reforming the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), which would require warrants to access email and other electronic communications.
Photo from Reuters archives