Twitter Gets More Transparent With A New, Dedicated Site Reporting 6,646 Copyright Complaints And 1,858 Gov’t Info Requests. Twitter, now at 200 million monthly active users, is ramping up to be a big player in content delivery with embedded video services from Vine the latest move in that direction. But to play nice with rights holders and authorities, it is also making sure that it’s keeping all activity clean.
To that end, today the company launched a new, dedicated site, transparency.twitter.com, where it will house all updated stats and other information linked to information requests from government officials, copyright flags from content companies, and full-blown takedown requests. In honor of this, Twitter today also released updated figures for what government and rights holders have been requesting of the social network. Since January 2012 it has had 6,646 takedown requests; 1,858 government information requests but only 46 takedown requests. In a blog post announcing the site, Twitter says that it has chosen today to unveil the site in honor of Data Privacy Day.
Transparency Report. Wednesday marks Independence Day here in the United States. Beyond the fireworks and barbecue, July 4th serves as an important reminder of the need to hold governments accountable, especially on behalf of those who may not have a chance to do so themselves. With that in mind, today we’re unveiling our first Twitter Transparency Report. Inspired by the great work done by our peers @Google, the primary goal of this report is to shed more light on: government requests received for user information, government requests received to withhold content, and DMCA takedown notices received from copyright holders.
The report also provides insight into whether or not we take action on these requests. One of our goals is to grow Twitter in a way that makes us proud. This ideal informs many of our policies and guides us in making difficult decisions. Here’s the data, which dates back to January 1, 2012. U.S. No.1 in demanding data on Twitter users. Twitter released its first-ever transparency report on Monday, which provides statistics on the number of times governments and individuals requested data on Twitter users or made takedown requests under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act during the first half of 2012. The report was inspired by the transparency reports Google has been issuing for a couple years and shows, not surprisingly, that the U.S. government is the most active in the world when it comes to demanding data on Twitter’s users.
In the blog post sharing the report’s findings, Jeremy Kessel, Twitter’s legal policy manager, wrote that Twitter has received more government requests in the first half of this year than during the entirety of 2011. With 679 requests targeting 948 accounts — apparently more than the rest of the world combined — the U.S. government led the charge in terms of volume.
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Twitter unmasks anonymous British user in landmark legal battle. Twitter's actions have prompted concerns over free speech on the internet. Photograph: Jonathan Hordle / Rex Features Twitter has been forced to hand over the personal details of a British user in a libel battle that could have huge implications for free speech on the web.
The social network has passed the name, email address and telephone number of a south Tyneside councillor accused of libelling the local authority via a series of anonymous Twitter accounts. South Tyneside council took the legal fight to the superior court of California, which ordered Twitter, based in San Francisco, to hand over the user's private details. It is believed to be the first time Twitter has bowed to legal pressure to identify anonymous users and comes amid a huge row over privacy and free speech online. However, Giggs brought the lawsuit at the high court in London and the move to use California courts is likely to be seen as a landmark moment in the internet privacy battle.
The Truth About That ‘Landmark’ Twitter Case. This weekend The Telegraph reported that Twitter had revealed the name, email address and telephone number of Ahmed Khan, a UK council whistleblower accused of libelling his local authority using a number of anonymous twitter accounts and blog Mr Monkey. The council in question, Tyneside, took the case to the legal superior court of California, which in turn issued a subpoena to Twitter on April 14th 2011. According to Khan, what Twitter handed over was “just a great long list of numbers” and ordered it to hand over 30 pieces of information relating to several Twitter accounts, including @fatcouncillor and @ahmedkhan01. According to Khan, this included “all private messages sent by other whistleblowers exposing wrongdoing in the council.”
On April 15th Khan was notified by Twitter of the subpoena and was asked if he wanted to dispute it in court. He declined. On May 5th, Twitter released the details. This is key. Khan elected not to contest the subpoena. Not a Landmark Case. Twitter faces legal action by footballer over privacy. A footballer has launched legal action against Twitter after a number of the microblogging site's users purported to reveal the name of the player who allegedly had an affair with model Imogen Thomas. The footballer's legal team began the legal action at the high court in London on Wednesday, in what is thought to be the first action against the US social media firm and its users. The lawsuit lists the defendants as "Twitter Inc and persons unknown".
The latter are described as those "responsible for the publication of information on the Twitter accounts" in the court document, according to reports. Earlier this month, an unknown person or individuals published the names of various people who had allegedly taken out gagging orders to conceal sexual indiscretions on a Twitter account. Twitter declined to comment. The lord chief justice, Lord Judge, on Friday said Twitter and its users were totally out of control when it comes to privacy injunctions and court orders.