India’s request for Facebook user data second only to U.S.

The number of user data requests from the Indian government to Facebook increased 28% during the six month period from July-December 2019 at 26,698 queries — the second highest globally, according to the latest Transparency Report by the U.S.-based social media network. Of the total volume, the U.S. with 51,121 requests continues to submit the largest number of requests, followed by India, the U.K., Germany and France In a blog post, Chris Sonderby, VP & Deputy General Counsel at Facebook, said, “As always, we scrutinise every government request we receive to make sure it is legally valid, no matter which government makes the request. Internet disruptions As per the report, during the second half of 2019, Facebook witnessed about 50 instances of internet disruptions affecting 11 countries. During the first half of the year as well, India had topped the list accounting for 40 of the about 70 internet disruptions that affected Facebook’s products in about 17 countries.