Twitter has announced a surge in the amount of requests it receives from governments around the world for information on its users.
The social media service says the number of requests for account information has risen by 40 per cent in the second half of 2014.
Twitter also says the requests are now affecting 128 per cent more account holders over the same period, compared to the previous half of the year.
This news comes courtesy of Twitter’s latest transparency report, which looks to give users of the site a clear view of how their data is being used.
Twitter did point out that this continued rise ‘follows industry trends’, and was also partly caused by ‘continued international expansion’.
“There were also several world events during this time period, including various elections and terrorist attacks, which led to an increase in requests.”
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The United States came out on top for the most requests for user information; a massive 56 per cent of all requests came from the nation.
Turkey ranked second, with its requests submitted making up 12 per cent of the total.
Japan was third with 10 per cent, following by the UK with 4 per cent.
Of the 116 requests submitted in the UK, 34 per cent resulted in ‘some information’ being produced to the authorities.
The report also reveals that the UK requests were in relation to some 371 accounts across the service.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
