Facebook records 68% jump in data requests from Indian government

During the first six months of 2018, Facebook received 16,580 data requests from the Indian government.

Facebook offered “some data” in 53% of the cases requested by the Indian government. (REUTERS)

Social networking giant Facebook, which has been under scrutiny over fake news and data leaks on its platform in India and other markets, received 16,580 requests for data from the Indian government during the first six months of 2018, over 68% higher than the year-ago period.

According to Facebook Transparency report, the platform offered "some data" in 53% of the cases. "Facebook responds to government requests for data in accordance with applicable law and our terms of service. Each and every request we receive is carefully reviewed for legal sufficiency and we may reject or require greater specificity on requests that appear overly broad or vague," the report said.

The report revealed that the total requests for data from Indian government stood at 16,580 between January to June 2018, against 12,171 similar requests logged in July to December of 2017 and 9,853 requests registered in January to June of 2017.

Facebook, which has over 200 million users in India, counts the country among its largest user bases globally. Earlier in the year, Facebook had courted controversy when UK-based data mining firm Cambridge Analytica was accused of harvesting personal data of 87 million global users of the social networking platform, illegally, to influence polls in several countries.

The company had drawn flak on the issue from policymakers across the world, including the Indian government that had shot off two notices to Facebook over the data breach. In response to the first notice of the Indian government, Facebook had admitted that nearly 5.62 lakh people were "potentially affected" by the data breach incident.