Facebook has published a report revealing that the junta requested access to personal information on three Facebook users during the first half of 2016.
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
On 21 December 2016, Facebook published its Global Government Requests Report a summary of requests received between January and June 2016 from governments worldwide.
The report shows that Thailand requested access to the personal information of three Facebook users. However, Facebook rejected the request, saying the company would comply only when the case involved criminal offences and will always consider the proportionality of the law in each country.
“We apply a rigorous approach to every government request we receive to protect the information of the people who use our services. We scrutinize each request for legal sufficiency, no matter which country is making the request, and challenge those that are deficient or overly broad,” reads the report.
According to the report, Facebook blocked access to 10 online items deemed lèse majesté under Thailand’s Criminal Code. The blocking requests were sent from the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, now renamed the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society.
The report also reveals that governments worldwide sent more requests than in the same period in 2015. Requests to access user information increased by 27 per cent and 56 per cent of requests were sent from the US.
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