Twitter Says Requests from India for Information on Accounts Grew 66% in Second Half of 2019

Microblogging platform Twitter on Thursday said requests for information on user accounts from India grew over 66% to 789 in July-December 2019.

These requests - which include those from the government agencies (a combination of routine requests and emergency requests) - stood at 474 in the first half of 2019, as per data from Twitter's latest Transparency Report. These 789 requests (in the second half of 2019) were related to 2,873 accounts.

Twitter also received 144 requests from India for account preservation in the July-December 2019 period, it said. Removal requests from India also grew 55% to 782 in July-December 2019 from 504 in the preceding six months. Of the 782 removal requests, seven were court orders, while the remaining 775 were other legal demands, Twitter said.

Twitter said governments and law enforcement agencies globally submitted approximately 21% more information requests compared to the previous reporting period.

"Notably, the aggregate number of accounts specified in these requests increased by nearly 63%. The total volume of requests and specified accounts are respectively the largest we've seen to date since our transparency reporting began in 2012," it added.

Information requests from the US continued to make up the highest percentage of requests for account information, followed by Japan, France and India.

In this reporting period, Twitter received 27,538 legal demands to remove content specifying 98,595 accounts, it said.

In a blog post, Twitter said transparency is at the core of the company's work.

"We believe that transparency is a key principle in our mission to protect the Open Internet, and advancing the Internet as a global force for good," it added.

The company - which has been publishing its transparency reports since 2012 - noted that the "world has changed significantly since 2012".

"In 2020, it is more important than ever that we shine a light on our own practices, including how we enforce the Twitter Rules, our ongoing work to disrupt global state-backed information operations, and the increased attempts by governments to request information about account holders," it said.

Twitter said it has rebuilt its biannual Twitter Transparency Report site to become a comprehensive 'Twitter Transparency Center' with the goal of making its transparency reporting more easily understood and accessible to the general public.