Twitter received record number of legal demands for people’s info last year

Twitter saw a record number of legal demands for information on people’s accounts last year, including a spike in government demands that targeted verified news publishers and journalists, according to the company.

The social media platform’s “20th Transparency Report” said the U.S. government accounted for a greater percentage of information requests than any other requesting country.

“We continue to see a concerning trend toward attempts to limit global press freedom, with an increase in government legal demands targeting journalists, as well as an overall increasing number of legal demands on accounts — both represent record-highs since reporting began,” Twitter said in a statement accompanying the report.

Twitter’s report published on Thursday showed nearly 200,000 accounts faced legal demands from July through December 2021. Legal demands from governments against journalists and news outlets rose 103% over the previous reporting period.

The U.S. government accounted for 20% of all requests for account information, according to the report. Twitter said it complied with a portion or all of the U.S. government requests in 69% of the cases and it objected to 29 civil requests.