Facebook has thrown open its second Global Government Requests Report for 2013 which shows that India leads in asking the site to censor content and stands only second to the US. Facebook’s disclosure is part of the company’s push for users’ right to privacy in the face of the NSA scandal and ensuing protests against government spying.
The first report which was released in August last year covered the first six months ending June 30. The newly revealed information by Facebook offers a glimpse into content censorship requests by governments across the globe for the second half of 2013.
The data includes the names of countries which questioned Facebook about user information, the number of requests made by each nation, the number of users/user accounts governments expected the social network to tell on and more. The figures also indicate the percentage of queries which Facebook was required by law to comply with.
For its part, the company claims that it does not turn over members’ information without a fight. Each request is said to be inspected closely to make sure it isn’t vague and ensure that it is justifiable on a strong legal basis. But then again, Facebook is quite clearly bound by law to keep mum on the particulars of these government demands.
In the second half of 2013, Facebook admitted to having censored 4,765 pieces of content based on requests by the Indian government. The US hit a comparatively much higher number of 12,598 demands, in this regard. India is also reported to have forwarded 3,598 queries for user data and asked for information on 4,711 accounts.