Countries Requested To Remove Content In Record Number, Twitter Reveals In Transparency Report

Twitter said it had the largest number of target accounts with government removal requests in the reporting period since the company began issuing transparency reports in 2012.

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Twitter Transparency Report: Twitter said governments around the world had requested the removal of content from a record number of user accounts between January and June last year. The platform said that according to data from the new transparency report, over a period of six months, governments made legal demands to remove 43,387 content from 196,878 accounts.

Twitter said this was the largest number of target accounts with government removal requests in a reporting period since the company began issuing transparency reports in 2012. 

75% of these legal demands came from five countries, most of which came from Japan, followed by Russia, Turkey, India, and South Korea. It is pertinent to note that Twitter is banned in many countries, including China and North Korea.

Twitter said it had "blocked" access to content in some countries in response to 54 percent of global legal demands over the period or asked account holders to remove the content. 

"We are facing unprecedented challenges as governments around the world are increasingly attempting to intervene and remove content," said Sinéad McSweeney, Twitter's Vice President, of Global Public Policy and Philanthropy, in a statement. "This threat to privacy and freedom of expression is a deeply worrying trend that requires full attention."

Major social media companies face ongoing scrutiny from global governments and regulators over the content they allow on their platforms. Over the past year, Twitter has faced high-profile tussles with governments from India to Nigeria over content moderation and regulation.