In their biannual transparency report, Facebook have revealed that requests for customer data have soared in the first half of 2015 when compared to the previous period. Requests from the UK Government increased 1,018 to 3,384 between January 2015 and June 2015, though only 78.04% of these requests were fulfilled.
Across all countries, requests for data increased 18% from 35,051 in the previous period, to 41,214. The most requests by far came from the United States (17,577) followed by India (5,115). Facebook have stated that they respond to valid requests for data where they relate to criminal cases and that they carefully check the legality of each claim in order to protect innocent user’s information.
Requests for access to content to be restricted have also seen an increase. The most requests for content to be blocked came from Indian law enforcement agencies and the India Computer Emergency Response Team within the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, who requested information be blocked on the grounds that it was “anti-religious” or a form of hate speech that would cause unrest and disharmony. Eight items were blocked in the United Kingdom in order to comply with requests from the Gambling Regulatory Commission.
Overall the amount of content restricted increased 112% to 20,568 pieces over the period.
In their post announcing the report, Facebook assured readers that they do not provide governments with direct access to data, or “back doors” into customer information, and that they are careful with which requests are fulfilled. Chris Sonderby, Deputy General Counsel, writes: “To protect people’s information, we will continue to apply a rigorous approach to every government request we receive.”