In a recent press release, social media giant Facebook revealed that Malaysia was one of the countries that had requested data from it servers. With this, Malaysia joins the league of over 60 countries from around the world that have made similar requests. Interestingly, Facebook received over 38,000 requests for user data, all in the first half of 2013, with the U.S itself accounting for over 20,000 requests.

The Malaysian government reportedly made seven requests for the data of 197 users in the past 6 months, but as confirmed by Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek, Communication and Multimedia Minister, Facebook rejected all of the requests.

Colin Stretch, General Counsel for Facebook, said that all such requests go through a stringent process and it releases data only if there is a legal sufficiency for the requests.

Social media sites in Malaysia, such as Facebook have been in the limelight recently, mainly because of insensitive comments made by some users made about religious practices and beliefs. Facebook said that the requests were made to assist law enforcement and intelligence agencies in their official investigations.

Facebook said that governments were requesting data on names, the date the subscriber joined Facebook, content of their accounts and their IP address. The top five Asian countries that had asked Facebook to give user information are Malaysia (197 requests), Singapore (117 requests), Thailand (5 requests), Philippines (4 requests) and Cambodia (1 request).

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