Of all countries in the Western Balkans, Serbia sends the most requests to Meta company in order to obtain information related to user data on the social networking platforms Facebook and Instagram, according to the latest data.

Since 2013, Meta, the parent company of the social networking platforms Facebook and Instagram, has been publishing transparency reports on its website every six months, which include requests made by state institutions for data disclosure.

States request data from Meta as part of official investigations. The majority of these requests are related to criminal matters, such as thefts and abductions.

In most cases, basic data such as name, registration date, and duration of social network usage are requested.

Furthermore, states may request data on IP addresses or the content of user accounts.

“For each request we receive, we carefully assess their legal admissibility. We can reject them or request more details if they are too broad or unclear,” says Meta’s website.

Both in 2021 and in 2022, Serbia has made the highest number of requests to Meta compared to other countries in the region.

In 2022, Montenegro made the fewest requests, while Kosovo had made the fewest requests to Meta in 2021.

Regarding global statistics, last year, states sent over 476,000 requests to Meta, which is 51,000 more than in 2021 when the number was just over 425,000.

In the Western Balkans, Serbia also leads in terms of requests for urgent actions, although the number of such requests in 2022 has decreased compared to the previous year.

The smallest number of such requests – only one – was sent by North Macedonia last year.

Meta does not share all data requested by states, but some of these requests are refused or returned for further clarification.

However, in the transparency report, Meta also publishes the percentage of information the company provides after the requests. These statistics also include cases where Meta has provided user information upon the request of a government.

Last year, Croatia had the highest fulfillment rate in the region, with over 85 percent, followed by Serbia with 10 percent less.

Kosovo had the lowest fulfillment rate of requests – 19 percent.

State requests can also apply to Meta’s accounts on social networks. In 2022, the number of orders that were subject of state requests sent to Meta for information regarding users in the region was highest in the case of Serbia.

Montenegro had up to 12 times fewer of these requests, ranking last in the region.

At the global level, the total number of users or accounts for which states have requested data increased from 716,000 to almost 828,000.

Transparency reports were previously published by Twitter company – a social network owned by billionaire and founder of SpaceX Elon Musk, since October 2022.

However, Twitter has published its latest transparency report for the July-December 2021 period.