Facebook has published its latest transparency report and it says government demands for user data increased by 16% to 128,617 during the first half of the year compared to the last six months of last year.
This is the highest number of government requests since 2013 when Facebook first started publishing these reports. The U.S. Government has the highest number of requests – 50,741 – out of which 88% were granted to some of the user data.
Facebook noted two-thirds of the demands came with a gag order, preventing the company from telling the user about the request for their data. The report also notes the social media platform had 67 disruptions of its services in 15 countries, opposed to 53 disruptions in nine countries during the second half of last year.
Facebook also says it removed 11.6 million pieces of content, more than the 5.8 million in the same period a year earlier, which the company said it violated its policies on child nudity and sexual exploitation of children.
For the first time, the report also included Instagram, the company releasing data on how the company moderates content related to child exploitation, self-harm, terrorist propaganda, and drug and firearm sales.
The social media giant says it removed 1.68 million pieces of content during the second and third quarters of the year.
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