Facebook Succumbs to 38,000 Government Requests for User Info in 2013

Government says they request Facebook data for both criminal investigations and national security matters

Julie Wilson
Infowars.com
August 27, 2013

Facebook has released statistics revealing how often the government requests information on its users. During the first half of this year, Facebook released information on approximately 38,000 users in 74 countries.

Photo: Duncan Hull via Flickr

Half of the requests originated from government officials inside the United States. The numbers are not exact because the government prohibits companies from “revealing how many times they’ve been ordered to turn over information about their customers,” reported AP.

Google and Microsoft released similar data in June exposing thousands of requests from government officials during the second half of 2012.

Facebook answered about 10,000 government requests during the last six months of 2012 affecting the accounts of roughly 20,000 people, reported Fox News.

In June, Facebook was accused of providing the NSA direct access to the company’s servers through the PRISM program, but Facebook creator, Mark Zuckerberg, denied even knowing of the program.

According to Zuckerberg, Facebook was not part of any program that gave the US government access to their servers. He also said they never received a “blanket request” from any government agency asking for metadata in bulk. More here http://www.infowars.com/facebooks-succombs-to-38000-government-requ...