Twitter has revealed that a record number of requests have been made from several governments around the world to remove content from the social media platform between January and June 2021.
According to the platform, 95 per cent of the demands came from five countries which include Japan, Russia, Turkey, India and South Korea.
The company said that in July 2021, it had seen a surge in government demands to take down content posted by journalists and news outlets.
In a report, they said that 43,387 legal demands for the removal of content from 196,878 accounts were made in the six months. It is the largest number of such requests in a reporting period since Twitter started releasing its transparency reports in 2012.
Sinead McSweeney, Twitter’s vice president of global public policy and philanthropy, said, “We’re facing unprecedented challenges as governments around the world increasingly attempt to intervene and remove content. This threat to privacy and freedom of expression is a deeply worrying trend that requires our full attention.”
Previously, Twitter faced high-profile tussles with governments from India to Nigeria over content moderation and regulation.
