Facebook Inc. updated its transparency report on Friday to reveal how many requests for user data and content censorship it received in the second half of 2013 from governments around the world, PCMag.com reported.
For the second time, the United States leads the way with 12,598 government requests for user data, pertaining to 18,715 Facebook accounts, according to PCMag.com. However, the U.S. government didn't make a single request to Facebook to censor content.
The U.S. requests total is more than India, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, France, Brazil and Australia combined, PCMag.com. Facebook reported that it delivered data for 81 percent of those requests.
Facebook's first transparency report did not show what the social network's second report was allowed to clarify: how many requests came from U.S. law enforcement as opposed to those that pertained to national security, according to PCMag.com.
While Facebook gave exact figures regarding law enforcement requests, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act only allows Facebook to report such numbers within ranges of 1,000, PCMag.com reported.
Facebook's latest transparency report included Instagram data in its overall numbers for the first time, according to PCMag.com. The data is similar to a report that Google released, which revealed that the U.S. made more requests for user data than any other country.
The most accurate figure Facebook could reveal was that it received between zero and 999 National Security Letters requesting user data, according to PCMag.com.
National Security Letters are administrative subpoenas that secretly allow the FBI to ask telecommunications companies and Internet service providers for data about ordinary citizens as a result of terrorism investigations or other national security investigations, PCMag.com reported.
The letters are kept secret with gag orders that prevent anyone from either discussing them or even acknowledging their existence, but only if the FBI director authorizes a nondisclosure provision, according to PCMag.com.
India made the most censorship requests and asked Facebook to remove 4,765 pieces of content, more than all other countries in the world combined, PCMag.com reported. Turkey came in second with 2,014 requests.
