It’s been two years since Edward Snowden revealed the NSA and other government agencies are spying on our technology. One would think this would stop, or at least slow down, right? Wrong!
According to a Facebook biannual report, Facebook has received more data request from law enforcement agencies in 2015 than ever before. In the first half of this year alone, Facebook got over 41,000 of them. That’s an all-time high. It’s 18% higher than the second half of 2014. The rise of hidden content due to local law violations has more than doubled. Don’t worry my fellow Americans: hardly any of that hidden content comes from our nation. In fact, 75% of such censorship comes from India! India’s censorship laws are so strict the authorities insist Facebook’s Computer Emergency Response Team hide any content that criticizes the Indian government or religion. But the US does lead the league in data request. Of the 41,000+ request, more than 17,000 of them came from the US. In some way, this has affected over 26,500 users. In most of these cases, Facebook did comply in handing over some data. The number one cause of this is search warrants, with 9,737 requests. That’s followed by subpoenas with 3,375 requests.?Other nations that frequently request Facebook data are India, France and Germany.
First off, let’s be thankful for the online freedoms we do have in this country. Can you imagine if our posts were censored based on government, politics and religion? Let’s be thankful for our First Amendment rights and free speech. But free speech doesn’t give you the right to act a fool on Facebook. There’s an age old saying: Everybody is free to make choices; nobody is free from the consequence. So it’s never a good idea to put criminal activity on Facebook! There’s one story where a 12-year-old boy was beaten and someone posted the video on Facebook. Another teenager was caught and reprimanded by local law enforcement. Then there’s a disturbing story where a guy killed his girlfriend and talked about it on Facebook. Incidents like this will require search warrants and subpoenas. I believe in freedom, but I believe in some responsibility. How else can we keep government off our Facebook pages?