Governments, Led by U.S., Seek More Data About Twitter Users

The number of requests for Twitter user data from governments around the world continued to grow in the first half of 2013, the microblogging service said in its semiannual transparency report, released Wednesday.

Over all, Twitter said, it received 1,157 requests for data covering 1,697 users, and it turned over at least some data in 55 percent of the cases. The number of requests was up about 15 percent from the last six months of 2012, the company said.

Government agencies in the United States, where just 30 percent of Twitter’s active users reside, accounted for most of the demands, issuing 902 requests for data covering 1,319 users in the first six months of 2013. (Japan was second, with 87 requests covering 103 accounts.)

SOURCE: blogs.nytimes.com