India Among Top Countries Seeking Content Takedown: Twitter Report

New Delhi: In a blog post, the microblogging website Twitter revealed that India was one of the top nations asking for content to be taken down from the platform in the previous year.

Twitter said it received over 53,000 legal requests to remove content from governments around the world between January 1 and June 30, 2022, and published data on its health and safety initiatives on Tuesday.

India, the United States, France, Japan, and Germany made up the top five countries that requested account information.

In response to legal requests from the government, Twitter “continues to take action on content that violates our Rules and protects users’ rights,” the blog stated.

A total of 6,586,109 pieces of content that went against Twitter’s policies had to be removed by users between January and June 2022, up 29% over the second half of 2021.

A 20% rise in enforcement actions was reported by Twitter over the period, and a 28% increase in accounts suspended for rule violations—1,618,855—was reported.

Contents related to abuse/harassment, child sexual exploitation, hacked materials, hateful behaviour, impersonation, non-consensual nudity, violent attack perpetrators, private information, encouraging suicide or self-harm, sensitive media, terrorism/violent extremism, and violence were removed or accounts were suspended.

According to the blog post, “We intend to share more about our path forward for transparency reporting later this year.”