New Delhi, 20th May 2021: Social media company Facebook has said in its latest Transparency Report that the Government of India had asked for data of 40,300 users in the last six months of the year 2020. According to the report, the requests from the Government of India saw a 13.3% increase from January to June 2020. During this time, India had asked for data of 35,560 users.

American company Facebook also banned 878 items from July to December 2020, according to instructions from the Ministry of Information Broadcasting of India. 10 of these items were banned for some time.

According to the report, India sent a total of 40,300 requests between July and December 2020. Of these, 37,865 requests were legal process and 2,435 requests were emergency disclosures. However, India is in second place among the users with the highest number of requests for data. The first number is the United States, which asked for data of a total of 61,262 users between July-December 2020.

The report also states that there has been a 10% increase in the number of users’ data sought from governments around the world within the second half of the first half of the year 2020. In the first half, where the governments of the world together had asked for the data of 1,73,592 users from Facebook, in the second half the figure had reached 1,91,013. Data related to 62,754 users accounts were sought in India and in 52% of cases, some data was presented.

The report said, “Facebook responds to requests from the government to get data according to the relevant laws and its terms of service. Every request we receive is reviewed carefully and the request seems a little vague, we either reject it or more information is asked on it.