Facebook says India has sent out more requests to take down content related to local laws violations than any other country in the world. The figure has tripled since the last 6 months of 2014, rising to 15155.
The number is in line with the current global scenario. Requests for Facebook account data shot up by 18%, from 35051 in the 2nd half of 2014 to 41214 in the 1st half of 2015. The social networking behemoth said such requests and content restrictions have been on the rise ever since it started publishing the information two years ago.
India sent out a total of 5115 requests and has asked for the details of 6268 users/accounts. The percentage of data successfully produced from these missives stands at 45.32% overall. Facebook explained that it only responds to valid questions related to criminal cases. The company checks each request for legality and may reject it if it’s too broad or vague.
As per the Facebook Global Government Requests report, the amount of data which was blocked had more than doubled from 9707 in the back half of 2014 to 20568 in the January to June 2015 period. That’s a 112% increase, of which India had contributed 15155. Most of the content taken down in the country was linked to hate speeches and anti-religious sentiments.
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Facebook states most of the information removal was initiated by law enforcement agencies and the India Computer Emergency Response Team within the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The authorities feared the content had the potential to cause unrest and disharmony within the nation.
Facebook asserts that a large number of government requests across the world were in connection to robberies and kidnappings. Administrations usually ask for IP addresses, basic details about members and data about posts put up online. The US led the race in this area, with 26579 requests contributing to over 60% of the global number.