India Tops in Content Restriction Requests on Facebook

BANGALORE: As per the Facebook's Government Requests Report, the highest number of content restriction requests was from India. 15,155 such requests were made from India alone in the last six months, reports ET.

India has been topping the list of content restriction requests for three years in a row. The first quarter of this year saw the number increased three times in comparison to previous quarter. The previous quarter reported 5,832 content restriction requests.

Turkey ranked second on the report with 4,496 content removal requests whereas France requested 295.

"We restricted access in India to content reported primarily by law enforcement agencies and the India Computer Emergency Response Team within the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology because it was anti-religious and hate speech that could cause unrest and disharmony within India," said Facebook on Indian Government Reports website.

India also secured the second position this year for requesting about user data. US topped the list with 17,577 user data requests whereas India made 5,115 similar requests. India accounts for 45.32 pct of the total requests made on Facebook.

The overall number of content restrictions and government requests for data has also increased on Facebook. The law violating content has also surged by 112 pct this year.

The period from January to June 2015 witnessed blocking of 20,568 pieces of content by Facebook. The overall government requests for data on Facebook also increased from 35,051 to 41,214.

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