Requests for Facebook user information coming from the Philippine government jumped drastically in the first half of 2020, as seen in Facebook’s latest transparency report released on Friday, November 20. 

From January to June 2020, the government made 131 “preservation requests” for about 1,100 users and accounts. It’s a big jump from the past years.

Last year, from January 2019 to December 2019, the government made a total of 174 requests for 267 accounts. 

From 2016 to 2019, requests were made for the information of 1,099 accounts. 

The jump comes in a year that saw the signing of a repressive anti-terror law; online red-tagging by the government; the NBI arrest of a teacher for posting about a kill reward for President Duterte, and tensions between Facebook and national security forces after the social network took down inauthentic Facebook accounts linked to the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.

Facebook also dealt with a panicked user base after a wave of duplicate accounts mysteriously appeared on the platform back in June 2020. 

The term “preservation request” is by Facebook. It’s what governments around the world can do if they want Facebook to preserve or take a temporary snapshot of an account and information on the account that may be relevant to a criminal investigation. Requests are submitted to Facebook’s Law Enforcement Online Requests page here, or through the mail. 

When Facebook receives a preservation request, it will then “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,” the company said in its transparency report. 

On its page called “Information for law enforcement authorities” Facebook in the US requires a subpoena, a court order and a search warrant for the disclosure of user information. 

Facebook also released figures for other information requests from the government. The government made 35 such requests, with Facebook providing the information 23% of the time, based on “legal sufficiency.” The number is similar to figures in the past few years. – Rappler.com