7/30/2019 Facebook: Governments Demanded Information on 38K Users, Among Them Protesters and Political Activists

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Facebook: Governments DemandedInformation on 38K users, Among them

Protesters and Political Activists

Facebook received about 26,000 government requests for information about 38,000 users in the first

six months of 2013, with half of the orders coming from the United States government.

The social networking service published the numbers on Monday, following the release of customer

information data requests from Microsoft and Google. Facebook said government agents from 74countries demanded information about its users, but the vast majority of these requests came from

the US, the Associated Press reported.

Classified documents leaked to the Guardian newspaper recently revealed that the National Security

Agency (NSA) paid millions of dollars to keep tech companies including Facebook cooperatingwith the US government. US federal law allows the government to demand Facebook data without a

warrant, and companies must fight such requests in secret court hearings if they deny them.Facebook provided user data in response to about 60 percent of such requests, AP reports. And out

of all US government information requests, the social networking service released some data about79 percent of the user accounts in question.

But because the US government prohibits companies from releasing exact numbers on how oftenthey have been forced to turn over information, Facebook has been unable to specify exactly how

many of the 38,000 user information requests came from the US. Facebook has announced the exact

number of requests for all other countries, but simply provided a number range for the US.

Worldwide, police and intelligence agencies have turned to Facebook to request information aboutgovernment and law enforcement targets, such as activists who staged anti-government protests in

Turkey. Facebook received 96 information requests for 173 Facebook users from the Turkish

government in the first half of this year, but initially denied allegations that it released informationabout protesters. Now, the social media giant admits that it provided some information about 45 of

these users.

7/30/2019 Facebook: Governments Demanded Information on 38K Users, Among Them Protesters and Political Activists

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We fight many of these requests, pushing back when we find legal deficiencies and narrowing the

scope of overly broad or vague requests, Colin Stretch, Facebooks general counsel company, said

in a blog post.When we are required to comply with a particular request, we frequently share onlybasic user information, such as name.

Facebook spokeswoman Sarah Feinberg told AP that the information the company gave to the

Turkish government revolved around users associated with child endangerment, as well as

information in response to law enforcement requests.

Overall, the six countries who submitted requests for information on over 1,000 users are the US,France, Italy, India, Germany and the UK. Russia, the largest country in the world, only submitted

one data request for user information throughout the six-month period.

Facebook told AP that it plans to regularly release data on user information requests it receives from

government agencies.