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Facebook content restrictions on the rise

Johannesburg - Requests by global governments for content restrictions and user account data on Facebook are on the rise, according to the social network.

Facebook, which has over 1 billion users, on Monday released its Global Government Requests Report which studies the second half of 2014.

Governments across the globe may ask services such as Facebook to restrict content based on their local laws. These governments may even make requests for data about people as part of official investigations.

“The amount of content restricted for violating local law increased by 11% over the previous half, to 9 707 pieces of content restricted, up from 8 774,” said Facebook’s Monika Bickert, Head of Global Policy Management and Chris Sonderby, Deputy General Counsel, in a blog post on Monday.

“We saw a rise in content restriction requests from countries like Turkey and Russia, and declines in places like Pakistan.

“The number of government requests for account data remained relatively flat, with a slight increase to 35 051 from 34 946. There was an increase in data requests from certain governments such as India, and decline in requests from countries such as the United States and Germany,” wrote the Facebook representatives.

South African requests

According to the Facebook report, South Africa’s government had no requests for content restrictions in the second half of 2014.

South Africa’s government did make two requests for user data. Although, no further details on the nature of these requests are supplied.

SA’s number of requests for, in particular, content restrictions could rise in future if a proposed Act by the Film and Publications Board (FPB) is passed.

The FPB wants to enforce rules that will result in content producers having to apply and pay for classification before their content is made available online.

If passed into law, organisations such as civil society watchdog Right 2 Know say this could enforce “pre-publication censorship” that could affect “everything published on the internet – including blogs, personal websites and Facebook pages”.

Other countries' statistics

However, South Africa’s number of government requests for Facebook user data currently pales in comparison with other countries.

Facebook says the US made 14 274 requests for user data in the second half of 2014 while India’s government made 5 473 requests for user data.

India also made 5 832 requests for content restrictions while Turkey made 3 624 requests to censor posts.

Facebook says it takes all government requests seriously but also opposes them where necessary.

“Moving forward, we will continue to scrutinise each government request and push back when we find deficiencies. We will also continue to push governments around the world to reform their surveillance practices in a way that maintains the safety and security of their people while ensuring their rights and freedoms are protected,” said the Facebook officials in their blog post.

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