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Government data queries rising: Twitter

Twitter says the United States remains the largest source of data queries, having made 1622 requests in the last six months of 2014.

Twitter application in use on an iPad
Twitter says the United States government remains the largest source of data queries. (AAP)

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Source: AAP


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Twitter says there was a 40 per cent jump in government request for user data in late 2014, with sharp rises coming from both Turkey and Russia.

The "transparency report" released by the messaging platform showed the United States remained the largest source of data queries with 1622 over the last six months of the year, but that notable increases came from Turkey and Russia.

The total number of requests globally was 2871, up from 2058 in the first six months of the year.

Turkey - which blocked Twitter and other social media last year for leaking data about government corruption - vaulted to the number two spot with 356 requests, the Twitter report said.

"Requests from Turkey increased over 150 per cent... We did not provide information in response to any of those requests," Twitter senior manager Jeremy Kessel said in a blog post on Monday.

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In Russia, where authorities demanded last year that Twitter block "extremist" accounts, Kessel said "we went from having never received a request to receiving more than 100 requests for account information during this reporting period".

Twitter did not provide any data to the Russian requests.

Twitter said the jump followed the passing of a "blogger's law" in Russia that requires those with more than 3000 daily readers to register and adhere to stricter rules or face a large fine.

In the United States, the number of requests increased by 29 per cent during the period, and Twitter complied in 80 per cent of those cases.

Japan was third with 288 requests, and Twitter complied in 36 per cent of those cases.

Twitter said Turkey made the largest number of requests to take down content - 328 of the global total of 376.


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