Facebook's Latest Report Shows Jump In Government Requests

On Wednesday, Facebook released its newest government requests report, revealing an increase in government requests of both the blocking and snitching sort. This latest report spans the first half of 2015, and covers data on both the number of content that governments wanted restricted and how much data requests governments submitted. As well, this report also details any info that can be revealed about National Security Requests received from the US government during that period.

Overall, the report shows things are on the upswing, at least when it comes to requests for data and blocking content...which are the two big aspects of government requests. When it comes to blocking content, local law violations resulting in restriction requests increased 112-percent in comparison to the latter half of last year; the number jumped from 9,707 to 20,568.

Meanwhile, requests from governments for user account data increased 18-percent across all reported countries in comparison to last year. In that case, the number of requests increased from 35,051 to 41,214. Facebook presents the number of requests broken down based on country here.

Finally, the social network has felt the need to reiterate that it doesn't "provide any government with 'back doors' or direct access to people's data," a common accusation against many tech companies that arose during Snowden's early revelations. As always, Facebook sometimes rejects requests, which it detailed in the report. You can download the full report as a CSV on Facebook's government requests website.

SOURCE: Facebook