Here are the governments asking Facebook for the most info about you

Here’s something you may not have known: Governments are seriously interested in what you’re doing on Facebook. So interested that sometimes they contact Facebook themselves to get the scoop on certain users, as well as asking for certain content to be blocked in their respective countries. While this might seem kind of weird, Facebook does release this info ,so we have an idea of who is doing the most snooping and asking to hide content. It’s all encompassed in a biannual Global Government Request Report, and the first half of 2015 was just released. Safe to say, it’s interesting.

With the rise of social media in the past few years, Facebook has become a bigger and bigger part of everyone’s lives, so it definitely serves as a useful tool for the government to get the information they want or need. The country that requests the most? The U.S., with a total of 26,579 requests for data, 17,577 of which were provided by Facebook.

Every other country falls way below this number, with the far second and third being India, with 6,268 requests and the U.K. with 4,489. When it comes to blocking content, however, India is the clear leader at 15,155 restricted posts, more than triple the country next on the list (Turkey with 4,496).

It probably doesn’t surprise you that these request numbers are higher than the last report. Government requests for data have increased by 18%, and content restrictions have jumped up an astounding 112%.

What this reveals is that the Internet has evolved from simply funny cat videos to being a legitimate source of information about people and culture, and the way we interact in this new, digital world. And also funny cat videos.

(Image via Tomislav Pinter / Shutterstock.com)