Facebook says government requests for consumer data surged in the first half of 2015. Requests from around the world for information on users of Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram increased 18% to 41,214 from the first half of 2014. The United States made more data requests than any other nation. It requested data about 26,579 accounts in the first half of 2015, up from 21,731 accounts in the second half of 2014, according to Facebook. In about 80% of the requests, Facebook provided some of that data.
Facebook was asked to take down 20,568 pieces of content in the first half of 2015, more than double the 9,707 requests it received in the second half of 2014. India made most of these requests, asking Facebook to restrict 15,155 pieces of content.
"Overall, we continue to see an increase in content restrictions and government requests for data globally," Facebook's deputy general counsel Chris Sonderby said in a blog post.