UK Government third on list of countries asking for data about you from Facebook

(Picture: Getty Images)

Government requests for Facebook data have increased significantly since last year.

And the amount of content governments are asking Facebook to restrict has shot up by 112 per cent.

The social network published the report as part of a ‘broader effort to reform government surveillance in countries around the world by providing more transparency’.

Although the US is still in a distant first place, the UK has moved up from fifth to third place.

Which governments request the most data?


United States
17,577


India
5,115

UK
3,384


France
2,520

Germany
2,344

Between January and June this year our government made 3,384 requests for user data, and restricted eight pages as requested by the Gambling Regulatory Commission. 

Last year they filed 2,110 data requests.

The US made 17,577 requests for user data – more than 12,000 more than India, which had the second-highest number.

Facebook aren’t allowed to give an exact number of national security requests from US authorities, but can publish a figure in a range of thousands.

The US made more than 2,000 more requests in the first half of this year than they did in the same time period in 2014.

Which governments restrict the most content?

India
15,155


Turkey
4,496

France
295

Israel
195

Germany
188



India had the highest number of content restricted – 15,155, compared to 4,960 last year. 

Most of these requests related to national laws around hate speech.

Overall, the number of government requests for data has shot up by 18 per cent, from 35,051 to 41,214.

The amount of content restricted for violating local law has gone up from 9,707 to 20,568.


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