Sudan requests information on 4 Facebook users: report

April 14, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The social media network Facebook disclosed in its second global government transparency report, covering the period between July and December of 2013 that it received official requests from the Sudanese government to reveal information on four of its users.

The report shows regular numbers pertaining to government requests for user data.

“We respond to valid requests relating to criminal cases. Each and every request we receive is checked for legal sufficiency and we reject or require greater specificity on requests that are overly broad or vague”, reads the short report on Sudan.

The report covered several African and Arab countries including Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Lebanon, Palestine and Bahrain.

The report pointed that Egypt requested information on six Facebook users, while Kuwait asked for information on three users, and Lebanon demanded information on 12 users.

The report further said Bahrain made a request to receive information on one user while the Sultanate of Oman asked for information on three users. Palestine for its part demanded information on 4 users.

Qatar, according to the report, submitted requests to get information on five users while the UAE requested information on two users.

The United States submitted the largest amount of requests followed by the United Kingdom. The former put in 12,598 requests, referencing some 18,715 user accounts, while the latter put in 1906 requests, referencing 227 user accounts.

(ST)

The full report is available at https://govtrequests.facebook.com/