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Requests for account data increased to 35,051 in
the second half of 2014 from 34,946 in the first half, with
requests from countries such as India rising and those from
others including United States and Germany falling, the report
by the world's largest Internet social network showed.
Facebook said it restricted 9,707 pieces of content for
violating local laws, 11 percent more than in the first half,
with access restricted to 5,832 pieces in India and 3,624 in
Turkey.(https://govtrequests.facebook.com)
"We will continue to scrutinize each government request and push
back when we find deficiencies. We will also continue to push
governments around the world to reform their surveillance
practices in a way that maintains the safety and security of
their people while ensuring their rights and freedoms are
protected," Monika Bickert, Facebook's head of global policy
management wrote in a blog post. (http://bit.ly/18vocm1)
Bickert said Facebook challenges requests that appear to be
"unreasonable" or "overbroad" and if a country requests content
be removed because it is illegal, Facebook may restrict access
only in that country.
The technology industry has pushed for greater transparency on
government data requests, seeking to shake off concerns about
their involvement in vast, surreptitious surveillance programs
revealed by former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo and Google last year began publishing
details about the number of government requests for data they
receive.
Facebook on Sunday also updated its community standards to tell
users what types of posts are not allowed on the service,
providing guidance on policies related to self-injury, dangerous
organizations, bullying and harassment, criminal activity,
sexual violence and exploitation.
(Reporting by Shivam Srivastava and Supriya Kurane in Bengaluru;
Editing by Anupama Dwivedi)
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