Pakistan sought to block content from 125 Twitter accounts in 2014: Report

Pakistani govt agencies made 4 requests for blocking content with 24 accounts specified between July-December 2014

WASHINGTON: Even as governments around the world increasingly requested micro-blogging site Twitter for information on user accounts and sought to have specific tweets and users taken down, such requests from Pakistan saw a considerable drop in the second half of 2014, but still managed to see 16 requests for removing content with 125 accounts specified in the year.

According to a transparency report released by Twitter on Monday for requests received between July to December 2014, the Pakistan government sought no information on specific accounts. In comparison, Pakistan had made two request for two accounts between January-June 2014.

Between July-December 2013, the Pakistan government had request information for one account.

The social networking website, however, said that Pakistani government agencies had made four requests for removing content with 24 accounts specified. Twitter, however, did not comply with any of the requests.

This is down from 12 requests with 101 accounts specified by the government in the first half of 2014. There was no data for requests made between July-December 2013.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has in the past requested twitter to block content which it claimed had violated the blasphemy law. Twitter had initially complied with the requests but later reversed their action and restored access to 23 accounts and 15 Tweets.

Twitter says government data queries rising

Twitter said Monday it saw a 40 per cent jump in government request for user data in late 2014, with sharp rises coming from both Turkey and Russia.

The "transparency report" released by the messaging platform showed the United States remained the largest source of data queries with 1,622 over the last six months of the year, but that notable increases came from Turkey and Russia.

The total number of requests globally was 2,871, up from 2,058 in the first six months of the year.

Turkey -- which blocked Twitter and other social media last year for leaking data about government corruption -- vaulted to the number two spot with 356 requests, the Twitter report said.

"Requests from Turkey increased over 150 per cent... We did not provide information in response to any of those requests," Twitter senior manager Jeremy Kessel said in a blog post.

In Russia, where authorities demanded last year that Twitter block "extremist" accounts, Kessel said "we went from having never received a request to receiving more than 100 requests for account information during this reporting period." Twitter did not provide any data to the Russian requests.

Twitter said the jump followed the passing of a "blogger's law" in Russia that requires those with more than 3,000 daily readers to register and adhere to stricter rules or face a large fine.

In the United States, the number of requests increased by 29 per cent during the period, and Twitter complied in 80 per cent of those cases.

Japan was third with 288 requests, and Twitter complied in 36 per cent of those cases.

Twitter said Turkey made the largest number of requests to take down content -- 328 of the global total of 376.

"We received 328 court orders and 149 requests from Turkish government agencies directing Twitter to remove content ranging from violations of personal rights to defamation of private citizens and/or government officials," the report said.

"We filed legal objections with Turkish courts in response to more than 70 per cent of Turkish orders received."

Twitter was required by the Turkish courts to remove at least some material in 50 per cent of the cases. Globally, it took down content in 13 per cent of cases.

Most major US tech firms have published transparency reports in the past two years, with more joining following revelations from leaked documents about government surveillance.

But the reports may only reveal limited data, with a delay, about requests from secret US national security court.