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Better think before you post that Instagram selfie -- a government could want it.
Facebook on Friday released its second government requests report covering the second half of 2013, and it expands its scope from the first one in two ways. First, it includes requests to restrict or remove users' content from the site, whereas the first report was limited to requests for account information. And second, the report now includes data on Instagram, the photo sharing app owned by Facebook.
Facebook is not breaking out the number of Instagram requests; they're included in the overall tallies. But Instagram's inclusion speaks to the popularity of the service, which Facebook acquired in 2012 but didn't include in its government requests report for the first half of 2013.
The report includes data on government requests to receive data about Instagram accounts and to restrict access to its content.
Facebook receives requests to restrict or remove content based on countries' laws over what can be shared online. When the request is legally sound, Facebook restricts access to content in the specific country whose government objected to it. If Facebook also determines that the flagged content violates its own standards, it removes the content globally. Separately, Facebook also receives requests for account information and data, many of which relate to criminal cases such as robberies or kidnappings.
Facebook does not hand over data every time it receives a government request -- sometimes the requests are overly broad or vague, or do not comply with legal standards, the company says.
In the U.S., Facebook received about 12,600 law enforcement requests in the second half of 2013, up from the range of 11,000-12,000 it tallied in its first report. For the second half of 2013, Facebook said it produced data for about 81 percent of the requests.
Regarding U.S. government requests about national security matters, Facebook reported it may have received none or as many as 999, saying it couldn't be more specific due to U.S. legal restrictions.
Governments in other countries across the world are also interested in Facebook users' data. India ranked second behind the U.S. with about 3,600 requests targeting more than 4,700 accounts. Facebook produced data for roughly half of those requests.
More than 1,900 requests came from the U.K., while the governments of France, Germany and Italy each served Facebook with more than 1,600 data requests.
Besides Facebook, other companies like Yahoo, Google and Microsoft periodically release their own government request reports, as part of an effort to be more transparent to users. The tallies have taken on increased significance following leaks about U.S. government surveillance made by former contractor Edward Snowden.
Zach Miners covers social networking, search and general technology news for IDG News Service. Follow Zach on Twitter at @zachminers. Zach's e-mail address is zach_miners@idg.com
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