Twitter declines Pak requests for accounts removal

SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter has released its “Transparency Report” which shows that it suspended 376,890 accounts in the second half of 2016 (July-December) for “promotion of terrorism”  an increase of 60 per cent from the first half of 2016, reports foreign media. 

The latest suspensions make the total number of blocked accounts to 636,248 from August 2015 when Twitter put constraints to deal with “violent extremism”.

It states: “The removal requests we receive are generally regarding content that may be illegal in a specific jurisdiction. Governments (including law-enforcement agencies), organizations chartered to combat discrimination, and lawyers representing individuals are among the many complainants we receive requests from.”

 Twitter, however, did not grant any of the requests made by the Pakistan government. According to the Twitter Transparency report, Pakistan made four total account information requests between July and December last year, compared to six requests made during the first half of 2016.

Although the number of requests made was lower, the number of accounts specified in the requests had increased from 22 in the first half of 2016 to 38 in the second half.

Pakistan also made 13 requests to Twitter for the removal of 19 accounts between July and December last year, compared to eight removal requests for 32 accounts in the first half of 2016.