Government requests for Facebook in the United States and most of Europe for the second half of 2014. But yet the number of government requests worldwide has gone up by a couple of hundred. Here’s why.
That’s because in nations like Russia and India, they’ve increased. Facebook is the #1 social media site in the world. This is a good tool to take interest in someone, especially if that person is suspected of a crime. India has the second highest government request on Facebook‘s list. They’ve had 5,473 request between July and December 2014. But catching criminals may not be the reason. Late last year, India’s national government asked Internet service providers to censor over 30 sites. I wonder did they go through Facebook just to enforce this censorship? Keep in mind no Internet restrictions were made in the US during this time. Government request went up in Turkey as well, a nation that has it’s own censorship issues. In the past, Facebook and other social media networks and ISPs have been accused of being in cahoots with governments worldwide in spying on their citizens. These are accusations Facebook and other technology entities vehemently deny. In fact, Facebook vows to scrutinize each and every government request.
The first thing I notice here is the same nations that are tightening up on free speech are the same ones hitting up Facebook for requests. I notice the US and Western European nations. There, government request have declined. I wonder if the NSA revelations of 2013 had anything to do with that. I think that scandal woke up a lot of people, from social media CEOs to consumers to even law enforcement. I think even they’re backing off because they know Facebook’s stand when it comes to such issues. What about nations like India, Russia and Turkey? Can anything be done to lower the number of government requests in these nations?