Facebook Inc. today revealed its numbers on government requests for user data for the first half of 2016, and not surprisingly, those requests are on the rise.

According to Facebook, the number of government data requests rose by over 27 percent this year, with the United States once again holding the top spot for these requests by a large margin. In fact, the U.S. submitted 23,854 user data requests, nearly four times the number of requests submitted by the second country on the list, India. Facebook also noted that more than half of the requests it received from U.S. law enforcement included non-disclosure orders that prevented Facebook from informing users that their data was being shared.

Other countries with significant numbers of user data requests include (in order) United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Brazil. Out of the top 10 countries, the U.K. had the highest percentage of successful requests, with Facebook providing user data in 87 percent of cases.

Facebook’s report also included information on content restriction requests, where local governments ordered Facebook to censor user posts or images. France held the top spot for content restrictions, followed by India, Germany, Brazil and Israel. The total number of content restriction requests actually decreased by 83 percent, but Facebook noted that this was largely due to a significantly high number of requests from France relating to one specific image from the Nov. 13, 2015 terrorist attacks.

The social network’s willingness to hand over user data and censor posts at the request of local governments has been criticized by organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, but Facebook maintains that it only complies with requests that are legal under local law.

“As we have previously emphasized, we apply a rigorous approach to every government request we receive to protect the information of the people who use our services,” Chris Sonderby, deputy general counsel for Facebook, said in a blog post. “We scrutinize each request for legal sufficiency, no matter which country is making the request, and challenge those that are deficient or overly broad. We do not provide governments with ‘back doors’ or direct access to people’s information. We’ll also keep working with partners in industry and civil society to push governments around the world to reform surveillance in a way that protects their citizens’ safety and security while respecting their rights and freedoms.”

Image courtesy of Facebook; chart by Eric David/SiliconANGLE