Governments increase demands to reveal private user data, Twitter says – By Amanda Seitz (Associated Press) / July 28, 2022
WASHINGTON (AP) — Twitter warned Thursday that governments around the globe are asking the company to remove content or snoop on private details of user accounts at an alarming rate.
The social media company revealed in a new report that it fielded a record number of legal demands — nearly 60,000 during a six-month period last year —- from local, state or national governments that wanted Twitter to remove content from accounts or reveal confidential information such as direct messages or user locations.
“We’re seeing governments become more aggressive in how they try to use legal tactics to unmask the people using our service, collect information about account owners and also using legal demands as a way to try and silence people,” Yoel Roth, the head of Twitter’s safety and integrity, said in a conversation broadcast on the site Thursday.
The U.S. makes up the majority of demands for account information, accounting for 20 percent of the requests. India follows closely behind. Twitter says it complied fully with roughly 40 percent of all asks for information on user accounts.
