Facebook has published its latest report on the requests it gets for user data from governments around the world, including from the Malaysia Government.
The Facebook Global Government Requests Report, which covers the second half of 2014, includes information about the government requests the social network received for content removal and account data as well as national security requests.
Facebook said that they continue to see an increase in government requests for data and content restrictions. The amount of content restricted for violating local law increased by 11% over the previous half, to 9,707 pieces of content restricted, up from 8,774. The rise in content restriction requests mostly came from countries like Turkey and Russia, and declines in places like Pakistan.
The number of government requests for account data increased to 35,051 from 34,946. There was an increase in data requests from certain governments such as India, and decline in requests from countries such as the United States and Germany.
Between July to December 2014, the Malaysia Government made 17 request to Facebook on 22 user accounts. However, Facebook only responded to 23.53% of the requests where some data was produced. They were no request to censor or restrict contents in Malaysia during the period. Facebook said “Each and every request we receive is checked for legal sufficiency and we reject or require greater specificity on requests that are overly broad or vague.”
More than 55% of the U.S. government’s requests to Facebook during that same period were in connection with search warrants. Subpoenas accounted for 32% of those requests and emergency disclosures accounted for 4%. India led the way in content restriction requests with 5,832.
“We publish this information because we want people to know the extent and nature of the requests we receive from governments and the policies we have in place to process them.” said Monika Bickert, Head of Global Policy Management, Facebook, and Chris Sonderby, Deputy General Counsel, Facebook.
“Moving forward, 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.”
[Download csv file] -Facebook Government Requests Report (July-December 2014)