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© Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty ImagesFacebook says it looks at each individual request from police.
Law enforcement agencies in the UK made thousands of requests for data on Facebook users in the last six months of 2013, according to results published by the social network.

Between July and December 2013, there were 1,906 requests submitted to Facebook for user data related to criminal cases. These requests affected 2,277 different accounts, and Facebook revealed that more than 70% of these requests saw some data produced.

"We respond to valid requests relating to criminal cases. Each and every request we receive is checked for legal sufficiency and we reject or require greater specificity on requests that are overly broad or vague," said the report.

Globally, there were more than 28,000 requests for data, but the number of requests by UK government agencies fell in the second half of the year.

Colin Stretch, Facebook's general counsel, said: "Facebook's mission is to give people the power to share, and to make the world more open and connected. Sometimes, the laws of a country interfere with that mission, by limiting what can be shared there.

"When we receive a government request seeking to enforce those laws, we review it with care, and, even where we conclude that it is legally sufficient, we only restrict access to content in the requesting country."

Facebook was one of a host of companies, including Apple and Google, that last year created the reform government surveillance scheme, which set out to increase transparency and accountability when it comes to online snooping by the state.

The movement towards transparency comes in the wake of Edward Snowden leaking documents about the US government's online surveillance around the world.