Governments Requests Rise for Facebook User Data, Blocking

Governments around the globe are asking Facebook to ban more posts and to hand over more user data, according to the company’s latest report on government requests.

During the first six months of 2015, 92 countries asked the company to restrict 20,568 pieces of content on Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram that they believed violated their laws. That was more than double the 8,774 requests Facebook received during the first half of 2014 from 83 countries. Requests for user account data also rose 18% to 41,214 in the same time frame. On average, Facebook provided some data for about 42.4% of the requests. The U.S. made 17,577 requests about 26,579 user accounts in the first half of 2015, according to Facebook. About 80% of U.S. requests resulted in Facebook providing at least some data.