Facebook reports 24% rise in government requests for personal data

Government requests for Facebook’s user information rose by about a quarter in the first half of 2014 over the second half of last year, the social media company has revealed.

In the first six months of 2014, governments around the world made 34,946 requests for data – an increase of 24% on the same point in 2013. During the same time, the amount of content restricted because of local laws increased about 19%.

“We’re aggressively pursuing an appeal to a higher court to invalidate these sweeping warrants and to force the government to return the data it has seized,” the company said in a blogpost on Tuesday.

Google said in September that requests from governments to reveal user information for criminal investigations had risen 15%in the first half of this year – and 150% over five years.