Twitter reveals British data requests more than doubled in last six months
|
Version 0 of 1. The number of requests for Twitter user data made by British authorities has more than doubled in the last six months, , figures reveal. Police and government agencies asked for information about users 299 times from 1 January to 30 June. This was up from 116 in the previous six months and more than the total for the whole of the previous two years. The requests related to a total of 1,041 accounts – almost three times more than the 371 that were specified in requests between July and December 2014. The data published by Twitter showed that it provided some or all of the information requested in 51% of cases. This was the highest proportion since the site first published its transparency report in 2012. Twitter said government requests for account information are “typically in connection with criminal investigations”. Requests may be turned down for a variety of reasons, the site said, adding: “We do not comply with requests that fail to identify a tweet or Twitter account. “We may seek to narrow requests that are overly broad. In other cases, users may have challenged the requests after we’ve notified them.” Related: Should everyone be able to delete social media posts? The surge in requests could be partly due to an increasing trend for terrorist groups such as Islamic State to use social media to recruit members and plan attacks. US-based internet giants have come under intense scrutiny over their willingness to work with security services. Last year, Robert Hannigan, the head of UK monitoring agency GCHQ, accused companies of being in denial of the role their networks play in terrorism and demanded they open themselves up more to intelligence agencies. Twitter sparked controversy this year when it emerged that it notifies affected users of requests for their account information “unless we’re prohibited”. The latest transparency report said the UK remains a top requester, accounting for 7% of the total 4,363 requests around the world. Overall, the number of demands for account information jumped by 52% compared with the second half of last year. Twitter said this was the largest increase in requests it has observed. The US was the most active, making more than half of all requests. Emma Carr, the director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: “Thanks to the transparency reports of internet companies, we know police are already accessing data with far greater frequency than many other countries. “If the public are to have any confidence that surveillance powers are being used proportionately, then we should not have to rely on private companies to publish this data. “The government should proactively be publishing their own transparency reports, highlighting exactly how many requests are being made, how often they are refused and why.” |