Indian law enforcement agencies requested Facebook to block content in 4,765 instances citing local laws between July and December last year, the largest by any country.

The social networking giant said it blocked content after government officials and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team reported that such posts were violating laws like criticising a religion or the state.

As per data from the second Government Requests Report by the California-headquartered firm, India made the highest requests for restricting content, followed by Turkey (2014), Pakistan (162), Israel (113), Germany (84) and France (80).

On blocking content, Facebook said: "We restricted access in India to a number of pieces of content reported primarily by law enforcement officials and the ICERT under local laws prohibiting criticism of a religion or the state."