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Facebook won’t give info to govts on political grounds

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SOCIAL media platform Facebook has stringent conditions on giving out subscriber information to governments and does not comply if a government wants access to user information for political reasons, an official from the company said.

SOCIAL media platform Facebook has stringent conditions on giving out subscriber information to governments and does not comply if a government wants access to user information for political reasons, an official from the company said.

By Hazel Ndebele

At a reporting tour on media literacy and Press freedom in the 21st Century in the United States, a Facebook official who preferred anonymity told journalists that the company supported freedom of expression and, therefore, would not dish out information to governments without following strict procedures.

A total of 18 journalists from various countries attended the just-ended two-week reporting tour in Washington DC, New York and San Francisco which was organised by the US Department of State.

“Our social media platform Facebook is there to allow people to express themselves freely and, therefore, if a government requests for user information for political reasons we will just not comply,” the official said.

“We do get numerous requests for user information from governments worldwide, but we look at so many things before divulging the information.”

The Facebook official said some governments had openly expressed their dissatisfaction with Facebook, while others had blocked the social media platform.

“In 2015, we were blocked 15 times by different governments and that cost $1,4 billion. The number of times we are getting blocked is increasing and it is a disturbing trend,” the official said.

Another Facebook official, Chris Sonderby, in his report on the global situation, revealed that government requests for account data had increased from 59 229 in the first half of 2016 to 64 279 in the first quarter of 2017.

“We apply a rigorous approach to every government request we receive to protect the information on the people who use our services. We scrutinise each request for legal sufficiency, no matter which country is making the request, and challenge those that are deficient or overly broad,” Sonderby said.

“We do not provide governments with ‘back doors’ or direct access to people’s information.”

The reports show that the Zimbabwean government has never requested for any data from Facebook. The 2016 report shows that the US government had the highest requests at 26 000.

The Zimbabwean government has, on several occasions, threatened to crack down on alleged social media abuse and is currently crafting a Cyber Bill to regulate the Internet.

The threats were mostly due to anger expressed by Zimbabweans who are not happy with President Robert Mugabe and his government because of alleged misrule and corruption.

Social media phantom, Baba Jukwa, became popular in the run-up to the 2013 elections for supposedly exposing the ruling Zanu PF party’s secrets and internal fights through Facebook.

Last year, #ThisFlag leader and cleric Evan Mawarire also gained popularity for posting on social media videos criticising Mugabe’s misrule, economic decline and corruption.

Sonderby said Facebook was working with partners in the industry and civil society to push governments around the world to reform surveillance in a way that protects citizens’ safety and security while respecting their rights and freedoms.