Twitter notes 22% jump in account information requests from governments

While US tops list of countries seeking information, Pakistan made less than 10 requests for less than 10 accounts.

As social media network Twitter reported a year on year 26 per cent growth in timeline views, it noted that governments were increasingly requesting  Twitter for information on accounts.

In its half yearly transparency report of June – December 2013 notes that information requests jumped 22 per cent to 1,410 requests from the corresponding time period last year.

Pakistan is among the 10 new countries who requisitioned information pertaining to Twitter accounts, bringing the total number of countries seeking information to 46. Pakistan made no removal requests in the period under review.

Twitter said it only releases an indicative range of the information requests it receives if the requests are fewer than 10. From Pakistan, the social media reported it had received requests about less than 10 accounts. Of these, Twitter said it complied with none of the requests.

In comparison, India made 19 information requests about 27 accounts and Twitter complied with only 32 per cent of the requests. It also received two court orders for removal of defamatory content. They received six requests from the government and 54 accounts were specified of which Twitter complied with 13 per cent of requests. Twitter also withheld 13 tweets in India.

Eight countries including Saudi Arabia requested emergency closure requests only.

United States remained the top requester with 69 per cent requests followed by Japan 23 per cent and Saudi Arabia five per cent.

However, it was France with the highest removal requests with 306 with 146 accounts specified about illegal discriminatory content. Twitter said it complied with 35 per cent of the requests and withheld 133 tweets.

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