Facebook Says Government Requests for Account Data Have Risen 27 Percent

Facebook Inc. said on Wednesday that government requests for user account data rose 27 percent in the first half of 2016 compared to the second half of last year, with U.S. law enforcement agencies topping the list.

Government requests for account data globally rose to 59,229 from 46,710 and more than half contained a non-disclosure order that prohibited the social networking website from notifying users.

Requests for content restriction, the number of items restricted for violating local laws, decreased by 83 percent from the second half of 2015, Facebook said in a blog post.

The Paris attacks in November last year elevated the number of content restriction requests.

Facebook for the first time provided information about government requests to preserve relevant user account information.

The company received 38,675 preservation requests for 67,129 accounts.

(Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)