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India tops list of countries requesting content restriction on Facebook

Written by : TNM Staff

When it comes to restricting content on Facebook, India has topped the list of countries which sought the blocking of content on the social networking site's various platforms.

According the "Government Requests Report" released by Facebook, 15,155 pieces of content were blocked on its platform- including Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram- between January-June 2015 on requests from the Indian government.

The number of entries blocked in the July-December 2014 period was 5,832, indicating a three-fold rise in requests from the Indian government to block content since last year.

Percentage of requests where some data were produced was 45.32%.

India is the second largest user base of Facebook with over 125 million users in the country. "We restricted access in India to content reported primarily by law enforcement agencies and the India Computer Emergency Response Team within the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology because it was anti-religious and hate speech that could cause unrest and disharmony within India," Facebook said.

The Times of India reported that "India accounted for some nearly 74% of the more than 20,000 pieces of content restricted worldwide at the behest of 92 countries."

Turkey stood at number two with 4,496 pieces of content restricted followed by France at 295 in the January-June 2015 period.

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