‘Democracies more likely to surveil Facebook’

MANILA, Philippines — Democratic nations are more likely to snoop on Facebook data compared to autocracies, a University of the Philippines-Diliman study found.

Examining Facebook’s transparency reports from 176 countries from 2013 to 2023, the researcher said democracies “make more data requests than authoritarian governments.”

“More alarmingly, many of these requests are made during so-called ‘emergencies’ and do not go through normal legal channels,” Rogelio Alicor Panao of the Department of Political Science said.

Published in the Democratization journal, the study refers to the phenomenon as the “democratic surveillance paradox,” wherein governments that are supposed to protect citizens’ rights engage in more surveillance and justify it as necessary for national security or public safety.

Facebook’s transparency reports show how often governments ask Facebook for user information, such as messages, photos or account details, the author said.

Since democracies are expected to respond quickly and effectively to threats, they end up requesting more data from platforms than authoritarian states do, hence “skipping safeguards meant to protect citizens’ privacy,” he said.

“Even countries with strong legal institutions can sidestep safeguards by relying more on emergency powers… It suggests that surveillance is not just a problem in non-democratic countries; it is becoming normal even in societies that claim to be free,” the researcher said.

“If democracies are doing this in secret, how different are they from the regimes they criticize?” he asked.