Never has the ‘danger’ of posting personal details on Facebook been so high: Diário de Notícias reports today that “government requests” over the accounts and profiles of Portuguese users have skyrocketed in the last year.
The only saving grace this far is that only 36% of requests have been “attended”.
“The large majority” related to criminal cases, reveals Facebook today.
Often “government inquiries seek basic information on the subscriber”, like his or her name and length of time on Facebook. Authorities can also request IP addresses and “content, publications and other account details”.
According to the social network, the legality of each request is “verified individually”.
In its report released today and outlining requests in various countries, Facebook shows that America is still the place where authorities request most details on users. A total of 26,579 requests were made, of which 78.85% were sanctioned.
The UK and France also logged “an elevated number of requests”, adds DN, giving figures at 3,384 and 2,520 respectively.
Facebook’s latest report also gives data on the number of posts that are removed due to disrespect of local laws, or to being inflammatory.
Countries where content is most removed include India and Turkey (15,155 and 4,496 posts respectively), and inflammatory posts removed include those where events like the Holocaust are described as fictitious.
