Social networking platform Facebook has turned down all requests from the Bangladesh government for information about users in the first half of this year, according to a biannual report published by the tech giant on Wednesday.
Facebook’s “Global Government Requests Report” shows the Bangladesh government made three requests about as many users’ accounts in between January and June this year. In its report Facebook provided country-wise statistics of government requests and its responses. The report is one of the chief indicators of government interest in the company’s data.
Since introducing the report in 2013, the social media giant has not provided any data to Bangladesh government, which made 16 requests about 37 user accounts during this time, according to the half-yearly reports.
However, the social network service did not provide any specific information on how many contents had been restricted access from Bangladesh or taken down upon requests passed on by the Bangladesh government, although it did report that in the first half of the year, overall 20,568 posts and other pieces of content that violated local laws had been taken down, more than doubling the number in the second half of 2014.
According to the report, government requests for account data globally jumped 18% in the first half of 2015 to 41,214 accounts, up from 35,051 requests in the second half of 2014, according to a Facebook news release. The amount of content restricted increased by 112% over the second half of 2014, to 20,568 pieces of content, up from 9,707.
US law enforcement agencies topped the list of data seekers, requesting data from 26,579 accounts, up from 21,731 accounts in the second half of 2014. India and the UK were secured the second and third position, with requests for data about 6,268 and 4,489 users/accounts respectively.
India and Turkey were responsible for most of the content taken down for violating local laws. India had 15,155 pieces of content restricted while Turkey had 4,496.
Facebook, Microsoft Corp, Yahoo Inc and Alphabet Inc, formerly Google, last year began publishing details about the number of government requests for data they receive.
In response to a query of a ruling party lawmaker on Wednesday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told the parliament that popular online messaging and calling services WhatsApp and Viber will be blocked temporarily, if needed, in order to nab militants and prevent terrorist activities in the country. She, however, did not specify when the government is going to block the apps.
