When something on Facebook, Instagram, or Threads is reported to us as going against local law, but doesn't go against our Community Standards, we may restrict the content's availability in the country where it is alleged to be unlawful. We receive reports from governments, regulators, and courts, as well from non-government entities and members of the public, which we review in line with our Corporate Human Rights Policy and our commitments as members of the Global Network Initiative. This report details these instances where we restricted access to content based on local law. It does not include content we removed for going against our policies.
We continually work to improve this report. This report also now includes information where in limited countries we are obligated to automatically restrict content, at scale and in country, based on local law requirements, which is reflected in the comparatively higher volumes of content restrictions. It also includes instances where we restricted access to content to comply with court orders and requests under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation.
In addition, when content has been restricted by Meta based on legal requests from governments and courts, in a majority of cases, we inform users which state authority sent the request resulting in the restriction and the country in which the content is restricted. This improved user experience is live globally except in Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Hong Kong, and India primarily due to legal obligations and regulatory considerations.