Twitter saw a jump in official requests to remove posts in the first half of this year. Removal requests were up 13 percent, with the largest volumes coming from Turkey and Russia, which have historically led the pack asking Twitter to get rid of content, according to a transparency report released by the US-based social media firm.
The requests typically concerned content deemed illegal by local law, Twitter said. Its report did not detail whether efforts to prevent extremists from using the platform to spread violent messages were a factor in the requests. Overall, Twitter received 4,434 requests for content removal from governments or police agencies during the first half of this year. The requests targeted a total of 20,594 accounts targeted, with no action taken on 15,195 of them, Twitter said. However, the United States led when it came to government requests for information about Twitter accounts. It made 2,520 account information requests, getting at least some of what it asked for in 82 percent of cases.
