Data Privacy Day: Twitter Transparency report shows govt requests increasing

The micro-blogging site, Twitter has just released its second Transparency report, highlighting information requests, removal requests and copyright notices. The report notes that Over the course of 2012, we saw a steady increase in government requests (with a slight decline in copyright takedown notices). All signs suggest that these government inquiries will continue to climb into the foreseeable future. So yes governments across the world are demanding more and more access to your Twitter accounts. According to the report, Information requests which include worldwide government requests for user account information, typically in connection with criminal investigations or cases have gone up towards the end of 2012. [caption id=“attachment_605378” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational Image. Reuters[/caption] The report shows that the United States government had over 815 requests and Twitter gave information in nearly 69 percent of the cases. The US government specified 1145 user accounts. As far as India was concerned, the number of requests for user account information was less than 10 and Twitter gave information in none of the requests. In the case of removal requests, which the report specifies as those made by governments to removal content that may be illegal in their respective jurisdictions, the United States had 2 removal requests and 12 accounts were specified. Twitter didnot withhold or remove any content in these requests. India had one removal request from the government and one from a court order. Twitter did not remove the content in these cases. The Indian government specified 16 Twitter accounts in 2012 but Twitter did not withhold any tweets from these accounts.