Governance on Social Media Data: Different Focuses between Government and Internet Company

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how economic, political, and social factors influence government requests for Facebook user data and Facebook's response rates, revealing differing focuses between governments and the platform.

Contribution

It provides an empirical analysis of the relationship between country-level factors and social media data governance by governments and Facebook.

Findings

Higher GDP per capita correlates with more data requests.

Countries with more human freedom send more requests and receive more responses.

Facebook responds more to requests from countries with higher human freedom and lower political stability.

Abstract

How governments and Internet companies regulate user data on social media attracts public attention. This study tried to answer two questions: What kind of countries send more requests for Facebook user data? What kind of countries get more requests replies from Facebook? We aim to figure out how a country's economic, political and social factors affect its government requests for user data and Facebook's responses rate to those requests. Results show that countries with higher GDP per capita, a higher level of human freedom and a lower level of rule of law send more requests for user data; while Facebook tends to reply to government requests from countries with a higher level of human freedom and a lower level of political stability. In conclusion, governments and Facebook show different focuses on governance on social media data.