Kenya now want Kenyans’ private information from Facebook

Facebook reveals that the government of Kenya demanded Kenyans’ data in almost five instances within 2019, in all the five instances the government failed to follow the legal channel of requesting private informations.

The recent Facebook transparency report reveals that the Company complied with one demand out of the five without clarifying the nature of the information. Facebook also denied the identity of the accounts categorically targeted by the Government.

Social networking service company, Facebook replied to the government’s demand within the line of legal terms and in accordance with applicable rules.

“Each request we receive is carefully reviewed for legal sufficiency. We may reject or demand greater specificity on requests that appear overly broad or vague.” Facebook said in a statement.

Also in the transparency report , the government requested Facebook to keep the data of selective accounts within the review period. Facebook complied the request on accounts that the government will follow the legal procedures.

Facebook also responded to the request in a statement ” When we receive a preservation request, we will preserve a temporary snapshot of the relevant account information, but will not disclose any of the preserved records unless a formal legal process is initiated,”

Similar instances of government demanding private information from Facebook and other networks happened in the past years.
In 2013, the government requested the information of more 10 Gmail accounts from Google. Also, the period between 2017-2018 the government demanded the data of some accounts from Facebook in what seemed as unclear move.

The Kenya Government now want to regulate social media users through the Communication Authority and have Control over million individuals who access social media