Twitter released its first Transparency Report highlighting the number of times they received:
- government requests for user information,
- government requests to withhold content, and
- DMCA takedown notices from copyright holders.
The report shows that the U.S. government has asked Twitter 679 times to reveal user information since January 2012, followed by Japan with 98 and Canada and the United Kingdom with 11 requests each. All other countries listed in the report asked <10 times to reveal user information. In response to government requests to remove tweeted content, Twitter removed content 0% of the time.
Following Google’s transparency report, Twitter submits all requests to @ChillingEffects in order to keep the tweets flowing and ultimately protect freedom of expression online:
I recognize Big Brother needs to keep us safe from harm but still find it rather chilling the U.S. seems to request more user information than the res of the world combined. Isn’t this what we used to accuse the Iron Curtain nations of doing?