Daily Times

KARACHI: Social media giant Facebook on Friday released their latest Global Government Requests Report for the second half of 2016, revealing that government requests for account data increased by 9 percent globally compared to the first half of 2016, from 59,229 to 64,279 requests.

“About half of the data requests we received from law enforcement in the US contained a non-disclosure order that prohibited us from notifying the user”, Facebook said.

During the second half of 2016 (July-December), the law enforcement agencies and regulatory authority of Pakistan made a total of 1,002 requests for data. Facebook says that details about 1,431 user accounts were provided to the authorities.

Almost 68 percent of requests produced data, out of which 998 were through the legal process and 4 were in emergency.

Facebook also notes that Pakistani authorities have made 442 preservation requests and asked Facebook to preserve account records for 677 users.

Based on legal requests from the Pakistan Telecom Authority and Federal Investigation Agency, Facebook restricted access to 6 items that were alleged to violate local laws prohibiting blasphemy and condemnation of the country’s independence.

The report also mentions that disruption affecting access to Facebook products and services in Pakistan took place last year during November 2016 due to Chehlum activities.

The number of content restrictions for violating local law went down by 28 percent globally compared to the first half of 2016, from 9,663 to 6,944.

“Our prior two reports had reflected more restrictions based largely on French content restrictions of a single image from the November 13, 2015 Bataclan terrorist attack in Paris”.

Facebook stated, ‘We apply a rigorous approach to every government request we receive to protect the information of the people who use our services. We scrutinize each request for legal sufficiency, no matter which country is making the request, and challenge those that are deficient or overly broad. We do not provide governments with ‘back doors’ or direct access to people’s information”.

Facebook said it also continues to seek ways to work with partners in industry and civil society to push governments around the world to reform surveillance in a way that protects their citizens’ safety and security while respecting their rights and freedoms.