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Twitter is pressuring the US for greater transparency

Global requests for user information continue to rise.

By Jimmy Nicholls

Twitter is pressuring the US Government for freedom to publish data on national security requests, following repeated omissions of such information from its biannual transparency reports.

The social network sent a draft report to the DOJ in April concerning national security requests to see what could be published, but said that the department has yet to reply.

Jeremy Kessel, senior manager of global legal policy at Twitter, said: "Specifically, if the Government will not allow us to publish the actual number of requests, we want the freedom to provide that information in much smaller ranges that will be more meaningful toTwitter’s users, and more in line with the relatively small number of non-national security information requests we receive."

In a meeting earlier this year the social network was rebuffed by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), but the company has continued to press for further transparency.

"We are weighing our legal options to provide more transparency to our users," Kessel added.

Between January and June of this year requests for account information rose for the fourth consecutive half to more than 2,000, with 54 countries making request, according to Twitter.

The US accounted for 1,257 of requests, with almost three-quarters of those yielding some information, the second highest approval rate next to Australia, which made only two requests.

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