Pakistan Ranks Second Among the Top States where Facebook Curbed Most Content

According to the Facebook latest transparency report, the total content restricted in Pakistan by Facebook doubled in time period between July and December 2018.

During the second half of 2018, Facebook restricted 4,174 items within Pakistan. In the first half of 2018, Facebook restricted 2203 pieces.

Pakistan ranked second among the list of countries in which Facebook restricted maximum content followed by Brazil in which 4,026 pieces were restricted. India topped the list with 17,713 items restricted by the social media giant.

Facebook has restricted 3,811 posts, 343 pages and groups, 10 profiles and one album in Pakistan. Also, on Instagram 9 items were restricted out of which 7 were posts while two were accounts.

The reason for restricting content in Pakistan is due to the violation of local laws that prohibit blasphemy, content against judiciary, defamation, and condemnation of Pakistan’s independence.

Read also: Facebook brought down 2 billion fake accounts this year

Facebook said, “When we receive a preservation request, we will preserve a temporary snapshot of the relevant account information but will not disclose any of the preserved records unless and until we receive formal and valid legal process.”

During the time period July to December 2018, 488 preservation requests were sent in comparison 430 in the first half of 2018. All over the world, the government requests for user data increased by 7% in the second half 2018 from 103,815 to 110,634.

The report stated,  “In the second half of 2018, we identified 53 disruptions of Facebook services in nine countries, compared to 48 disruptions in eight countries in the first half of 2018. This half, India accounted for 85 percent of total new global disruptions.”