Facebook released its Global Government Requests report for government requests just a day ago. The report outlines some important developments. It reveals although the United States of America had the most number of requests for user accounts, India took a lead in submitting requests for censoring content.
Facebook Global Government Requests
Apart from censoring, the GoI (Government of India) also sought information on many user accounts. The report mentioned, In 2013, the government had made 3,598 requests, seeking information on 4,711 accounts.
The Facebook Transparency Report also to an extent explained the nature of content that had been censored in India. Significant part of the content that had been restricted for access had been reported primarily by law enforcement officials and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) under local laws prohibiting criticism of a religion or the state.
This is what report mentions “restricted access in India to a number of pieces of content reported primarily by law enforcement officials and the India Computer Emergency Response Team under local laws prohibiting criticism of a religion or the state.”
What is evident from the report is developing countries Like India and others make more requests for seeking information on the accounts than the developed countries. However, US, United Kingdom and Italy are some of the developed countries that have made requests to seek information on thousands of Facebook accounts.
The popular social networking website refrained from revealing the requests which were made under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) as the act makes it mandatory for the popular social networking website to wait for a period of 6 months prior to releasing any such report.
Turkey is one country that has been quite active in monitoring Facebook content. The country already sees networking sites like Twitter and YouTube banned for public use. For more information on Facebook Global Government Requests, visit Facebook Newsroom page.
