Facebook claims government data requests are up by 24%

You would think that after the Snowden reports about governments spying on their citizens that perhaps these governments would be a little more careful about their requests on user information. However if anything it seems like the contrary would be true. According to Facebook’s latest transparency report, it has been revealed that government requests have actually increased by 24%.

Being the world’s largest social network, Facebook is one of the prime feeding grounds for data — and inevitably requests from federal agencies for said data. According to Facebook’s latest transparency report published on Tuesday, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company received 34,946 requests for data during the first six months of 2014. That translates to a 24 percent uptick from the second half of 2013, nearly matched by a 19 percent increase in the amount of content restricted due to local laws where Facebook operates. Chris Sonderby, Facebook’s deputy general counsel, promised in the report that the company pushes “back hard” against any and all requests before forking over data — if at all.