Staff Reporter :
Social networking site Facebook has turned down the Bangladesh government’s request for providing information about its users in the six months of this year.
Facebook, a popular online social networking service headquartered in Menlo Park, California in USA on Wednesday released its ‘Global Government Requests Report.
In the report, the online social networking service shows the Bangladesh government made three requests about as many users in between January and June this year. “We respond to valid requests relating to criminal cases. Each and every request we receive is checked for legal sufficiency and we reject or require greater specificity on requests that are overly broad or vague,” the report says.
In its report, the Facebook said as it has emphasised before, Facebook does not provide any government with “back doors” or direct access to people’s data,” “We scrutinize each request we receive for legal sufficiency, whether from an authority in the US, Europe, or elsewhere. If a request appears to be deficient or overly broad, we push back hard and will fight in court, if necessary,” the report was quoted. Facebook released the report as part its broader effort to reform government surveillance in countries around the world by providing more transparency, says the news release. The Facebook said it released Global Government Requests Report as part of a broader effort to reform government surveillance in countries around the world by providing more transparency.
This report, which covers the first half of 2015, provides information about the number of government requests we receive for data, as well as the number of pieces of content restricted for violating local law in countries around the world where we provide service.
The report also includes updated information about the national security requests we received from US authorities under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and through National Security Letters.
“Overall, we continue to see an increase in content restrictions and government requests for data globally.” The amount of content restricted for violating local law increased by 112 per cent over the second half of 2014, to 20,568 pieces of content, up from 9,707.
Government requests for account data increased across all countries by 18 per cent over the same period, from 35,051 requests to 41,214.
Over the last two years, Facebook has regularly published information about the nature and extent of the requests it receives. “To protect people’s information, we will continue to apply a rigorous approach to every government request we receive.”
We’ll also keep working 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.
