Twitter: Government Info Requests on the Rise, Up 40% Worldwide

Twitter’s latest transparency report is out, and the numbers of governmental requests – both for user info and for content removal – are way up.

According to Twitter, the company has seen a 40% increase in government requests for user info in the past six months, worldwide. The biggest increase comes in Russia, where Twitter say over 100 separate requests for user info after never having any. Requests from the Turkish government also surged – up 150%. In the US, requests spiked 29%.

In terms of how often Twitter complied with said requests, it really depends on where they came from. Twitter didn’t comply once with a Russian or Turkish request, but complied 80% of the time when the request came from the US government – the highest compliance rate across the world, by far.

Content removal request also rose, but in terms of compliance Twitter did not remove any of the content requested in the US – but did in countries like Russia, Turkey, and Brazil.

“Providing this level of transparency is not without its complications and sometimes means we get tough questions and criticism about our decisions. However, this candid feedback helps us to be evermore thoughtful about our policies and decisions regarding content and compliance as we navigate complex, diverse legal regimes around the world. As more companies consider publishing or expanding their own reports, we strongly encourage them to join us and our peers at Google, Vimeo, WordPress and Wikimedia in publishing government removal demands. The global community deserves this level of transparency from its governments and its service providers,” says Twitter Senior Manager of Global Legal Policy Jeremy Kessel.

Our latest #transparency report: 40% increase in government info requests, 84% increase in content removal requests https://t.co/knP0FpYtOV

— Policy (@policy) February 9, 2015

You can check out the full report here.

Image via Twitter, Transparency Report