Continued Debate Over Government Requests Demonstrated By Facebook's Report

Despite the anti-American sentiments resulting from the Snowden revelations, governments from all over the world have been increasingly demanding data from social media companies.  According to Facebook's latest report on government requests, a growing number of governments are demanding that Facebook turn over data to aid law enforcement investigations.  Ironically, other counties are increasingly stepping up their attempts to block content that violates local law.  

Facebook said that the number of government requests for account data was up eighteen percent, from 35,051 requests in the second half of 2014 to 41,214 in the first half of 2015.  The United States topped the list of countries demanding Facebook user data, filing 17,577 requests about the accounts of 26,579 users.  Of the total requests made by U.S. law enforcement, search warrants claimed the highest request number, followed by subpoenas for non-content information.  About 80 percent of such