The number of requests made by the Irish State to Facebook for information on criminals quadrupled in the first six months of 2016, according to new figures released by the social media group.
In its report on the State’s governmental requests over the past year, Facebook found that 89 requests were made to the company between January and June of 2016 compared to just 20 requests in the same period the year before. Of these 89 requests, one was labelled an “emergency” case.
Just over 65 per cent of the State’s 89 requests led to the production of some data, while 117 Irish user accounts were preserved.
A preserved account is when Facebook is asked to keep account records in connection with official criminal investigations for 90 days, pending a receipt of a formal legal process.
The number of Irish requests stands in stark contrast to the 23,854 governmental queries for information on Facebook users submitted by the United States in the first six months of 2016.
The US was followed by India which made 6,324 requests, the UK which made 5,469 requests and France who submitted 3,763 requests.
Germany, Italy, Brazil and Canada all made more than one thousand requests last year.
Similar to Ireland's 89 governmental requests for information, New Zealand made 90 requests followed by the Dominican Republic which made 111 requests.
Russia made no requests to Facebook for information on users in the first six months of 2016.
Algeria, Bahrain, Botswana, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Uruguay and Vietnam also did not contact the social media group for information on criminals.
On its site, Facebook explains that government officials sometimes get in touch looking for information on Facebook users as part of official investigations.
“The vast majority of these requests relate to criminal cases, such as robberies or kidnappings. In many of these cases, the government is requesting basic subscriber information, such as name and length of service. Requests may also ask for IP address logs or account content.”
The organisation uses “strict processes” to handle all requests which are also “checked for legal sufficiency”.
“We require officials to provide a detailed description of the legal and factual basis for their request, and we push back when we find legal deficiencies or overly broad or vague demands for information. We frequently share only basic subscriber information.”
Facebook regularly produces Government Requests Reports as part of its effort “to share more information” following requests from governments around the world. Every six months, the social media platform publishes a list of all the countries that have made requests for information on users of their various services which include Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram.
