Twitter Transparency Report on India

According to microblogging platform Twitter, India accounts for highest number of legal demands worldwide, to remove content posted by journalists and news outlets on the platform, in July-December 2021. It made 114 such requests.  This data was presented in Twitter Transparency Report.

Important findings of the report include;

  • India is only behind United States in asking for Twitter account information.
  • India accounts for 19% of total information requests worldwide.
  • India is among top five countries to give content-blocking orders to Twitter, for all kinds of users, in July-December 2021.
  • After India, other countries accounting for high legal demands include- Turkey, Russia, and Pakistan.
  • Turkey made 78 such demands, Russia made 55, and Pakistan made 48 demands.
  • Government information requests comprises of emergency as well as routine legal demands for account information.
  • In India, during January-June 2021, 17 tweets from verified journalists and news outlets were withheld, without giving details.

Routine requests are also known as non-emergency requests. These are legal demands, which are issued by government or law enforcement authorities. Such requests include court orders, subpoenas, and search warrants. Such requests compel Twitter to turn over account information. Twitter can disclose account information to law enforcement agencies against a valid emergency request, if enforcement agencies provide enough information to support to belief that, there is danger to death of serious physical injury to person.


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