If the pen is mightier than the sword, is a tweet mighty enough to challenge the government? Apparently so.
Twitter received 40 per cent more government requests for account information in the second half of last year, according to its latest transparency report released Monday. In total, 2,871 requests were filed against 7,144 different accounts.
In Canada, Twitter received 32 user information requests from law enforcement, and complied with 34 per cent of them. Twitter also receives requests to remove content. The compliance rate — the percentage at which it agrees to takedown requests — varies depending on the country. In France, Twitter has complied with 43 per cent of requests. In Canada and the U.S., zero per cent.
Twitter avoids removing content when possible, Jeremy Kessel, Twitter's senior manager of global legal policy, wrote in a blog post.
"We denied several requests to silence popular critics of the Russian government and other demands to limit speech about non-violent demonstrations in Ukraine," Kessel said.
Canada has seen a steady increase in the amount of government requests for account user information and the number of accounts specified, according to the report.
The company releases transparency reports twice a year, and the latest report covers July to December, 2014. Increased social networking habits and online storage of personal information has seen similar reports become increasingly common. Many companies, like Apple and Facebook, release such information on a routine basis.
— With files from Damon Beres, The Huffington Post
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