India has the most content takedown requests for Facebook

In a surprising twist, India made the highest number of content restriction requests- a whopping 15,155- from Faceboook in the first six months of this year, according to the social network's bi-annual Government Requests Report.

The number of requests in January-June 2015 more than tripled from the previous six months, when India made 5,832 requests. It has also been the top requestor for content removal requests from Facebook since the past two years.

In the first half of this year, India was followed by Turkey, with 4,496 content removal requests and France with 295.

"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," said Facebook on Indian Government Reports website.

India also ranked second, after the US, in making user data requests from Facebook this year. While the US made 17,577 requests, India requested data for user data 5,115 times. Facebook complied with 45.32% of the requests made from India.

Overall, Facebook saw a global increase in content restrictions and government requests for data. The amount of content restricted for violating local law increased by 112% compared to the second half of 2014, Facebook said.

Image credit: Indiatimes