Twitter said Monday that government requests for user account information grew from July to December including in Russia, Turkey and the United States.
The social network received from 58 countries a total of 2,871 government requests, a 40 percent increase compared to the previous six-month period, according to Twitter s transparency report.
Twitter typically receives requests for user account information because of criminal investigations.
Jeremy Kesse, Twitter s senior manager of global legal policy, wrote in a blog post that requests from Russia, Turkey and the United States stood out from other countries.
Russia s government, which has never asked for user data before, submitted more than 100 requests during the six-month period. Requests from Turkey and the United States grew by 150 percent and 29 percent, respectively.
Twitter also said that the number of requests to remove or withhold content on the micro-blogging website grew to 796 requests, an uptick of 87 percent compared to the previous reporting period. Government bodies often make requests to remove information that could be illegal in that country including defamatory statements.
Photo credit: Laura A. Oda, Bay Area News Group
