Zuckerberg notes Turkey's defamation laws over Atatürk as Facebook updates rules

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has pointed to defamation laws protecting modern Turkey?s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as an example of the ?different legal and cultural environments? in which the world?s largest social network operates amid updates to the site?s community standards that inform users what types of posts are permissible.

?Every country has laws limiting certain expression, and these are often shaped by culture and history. For example, Holocaust denial is prohibited in Germany. Content that defames Atatürk is illegal in Turkey. In many Muslim countries, content regarded as blasphemous is banned as well,? Zuckerberg said on his own Facebook page on March 16. 

?Governments sometimes order us to remove content they believe is illegal but that doesn?t violate our community standards. We provide information about these orders in our Global Government Requests Report,? he added.

Turkey is second in the world in terms of the amount of content restricted on Facebook due to government requests, following India, according to the report which was also released on March 16.

A slight increase in government requests for account data in the second half of 2014 was recorded, the report also said.

Some 3,624 pieces of content were restricted in Turkey between July and December 2014, a rise from 1,893 restricted pieces between June and December 2014 in the first half of the same year, while India topped the list with 5,832 pieces restricted, the report by the world?s largest Internet social network showed. 

165 requests for 278 accounts

Facebook revealed that a total of 165 requests, concerning 278 users/accounts, were filed by the Turkish government to restrict in the second half of 2014. The report...