Demands to remove posts by journalists on the rise: Twitter

“In this transparency report, we received demands to remove 198,000 unique accounts,” said Yoel Roth, senior director, Safety & Integrity.

Legal demands to take down content posted by journalists has been on a consistent rise across the world in the last decade, Twitter officials said on Friday while hosting an open Spaces audio session on the social media service.

In the report, Twitter said India was only behind the US in seeking Twitter account information, accounting for 19% of global information requests. (Reuters)

“In this transparency report, we received demands to remove 198,000 unique accounts,” said Yoel Roth, senior director, Safety & Integrity. “While there is a demand for transparency from companies, governments are not being as transparent.”

Attacking governments directly, Twitter said that there needs to be public clarity on the requests filed by the state as well. “Over the years, we have seen governments become more and more aggressive in terms of silencing voices,” said Nick Pickles, the company’s senior director for Global Public Policy.

The company’s latest transparency report said India made the highest number of legal demands globally to remove content posted by verified journalists and news outlets on Twitter during July-December 2021.

In the report, Twitter said India was only behind the US in seeking Twitter account information, accounting for 19% of global information requests.

It was among the top five countries to issue content-blocking orders for all kinds of users.

Twitter said 349 accounts of verified journalists and news outlets located around the world were subject to 326 legal demands to remove content, a 103% increase in the number of accounts since the previous period (January-June 2021).

“This spike is largely attributed to legal demands submitted by India (114), Turkey (78), Russia (55), and Pakistan (48),” it said.

India had topped this list for January-June 2021 as well. In that timeframe, India had made 89 of the total 231 such demands the platform received globally.

Twitter said ‘legal demands’ include a combination of court orders and other formal demands to remove content, from both governmental entities and lawyers representing individuals.

Without giving details, 17 tweets from verified journalists and news outlets globally were withheld during the second half of 2021 as compared to 11 tweets withheld during January-June.

Roth added that while Twitter respects the laws of each country, it will also fight back against regulations that undermine the principles of the platform.

Twitter has challenged the legitimacy of the government’s takedown orders in the Karnataka High Court. Arguing that account-level blocking is unconstitutional as it falls beyond the purview of the information technology act, Twitter in its petition before the Karnataka High Court has challenged the takedown of 34 accounts that it states is a “disproportionate” use of (government) power.

The Central government has defended the measures, saying it was important for companies to follow the law of the land.