Facebook says 'no' to request for user info

Popular social networking site Facebook turned down all the requests of the Bangladesh government for information about users in the first half of this year.

The government made three requests about as many users between January and June, according to Global Government Requests Report released by the site yesterday.

Since the introduction of the report in 2013, the government made 16 requests about 37 users/accounts, but the social media giant declined them all.

The site, upon request from the government, restricted access in Bangladesh to three contents “reported under local laws prohibiting criticism of the state” between July-December 2013.

Facebook said it releases the report in an effort to reform government surveillance in countries around the world by providing more transparency. The latest report provides information about the number of government requests the site received for data and pieces of content restricted for violating local laws in countries around the world.

In the first half of this year, amount of content restricted for violating local laws increased by 112 percent over the second half of 2014, to 20,568 pieces of content, up from 9,707.

Government requests for account data increased across all countries by 18 percent over the same period, from 35,051 requests to 41,214.

US ranked first of all the countries with 17,577 requests about 26,579 users or accounts, of which Facebook provided data for 79.85 percent.

India and the UK were second and third in that regard, with requests for data about 6,268 and 4,489 users/accounts respectively.

India tops the list of governments that blocked Facebook content in their countries, with 15,155 posts being restricted. This is more than three times that of second-placed Turkey, which blocked 4,496 posts.

“We respond to valid requests relating to criminal cases. 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,” said Facebook authorities.