France now leads the world in the number of governments requesting the deletion of tweets, but the United States remains the most in terms of requests for information on Twitter accounts. Since last July, French authorities have sharply increased their requests to delete messages, compared to just three requests to delete content in the first quarter of 2013. From July to the end of December 2013, French authorities contacted the administrators of the social networking site 306 times to request information on 146 accounts with a view to removing content.
In a report published by Twitter, it said it had complied with more than a third (35%) of the requests from French authorities, deleting 133 tweets. Last July, French courts ordered the company to provide information on accounts that contained racist and anti-Semitic language. The requests were made following an initiative by human rights groups. Requests to delete content from French authorities account for 87% of the total number of requests worldwide. Overall, deletion requests increased sixfold worldwide between the first and second quarters of 2013, from 60 to 365. Requests for information from governments on Twitter account holders have also increased.
“Over the past 24 months, we have seen a 66% increase in requests for account information, with requests coming from more than 45 countries and involving more than 6,400 accounts worldwide,” the social networking site explained. “The majority of government requests for accounts continue to come from the United States,” which made 59% of the requests, according to Twitter. The site said it received 833 requests from US authorities in the second quarter of 2013, of which 100 were “urgent requests.” They involved 1,300 accounts, and Twitter responded positively to 69% of these requests, the company said. Internationally, the total number of requests increased to 1,410 and was an increase of 849 requests compared to the first statistics published in early 2012 by Twitter.
Source: kathimerini.gr
