Twitter: User info increasingly sought by governments

Twitter revealed that more national, state, and local governments around the world have been demanding the removal of content or disclosure of confidential information from its users, with nearly 60,000 legal demands fielded over a six-month period last year, according to The Associated Press. "Were seeing governments become more aggressive in how they try to use legal tactics to unmask the people using our service, collect information about account owners and also using legal demands as a way to try and silence people," said Twitter Head of Safety and Integrity Yoel Roth. Most demands for account information were attributed to the U.S., followed by India, while Japan accounted for content takedown requests, followed by Russia. A similar increase in government requests for private user data was also reported by Facebook and Instagram owner Meta during the same period. "This surge in government demands for content takedowns and information on journalists is part of a global trend of increasing censorship and manipulation of information. Social media platforms are vital for reporters and they must do more to resist government attempts to silence critical voices," said Committee to Protect Journalists Executive Director Rob Mahoney.