Indian government issued Twitter 128 takedown requests against journalists and news organisations

• Twitter has received 361 government demands to takedown accounts of 199 journalists, news outlets between July and December last year.
• Overall, Twitter had received over 38,500 legal demands in the second half of 2020.
• 94% of the total global volume of legal demands originated from only five countries, including India.
  

US-based social media giant Twitter received 361 government demands to takedown accounts of 199 verified journalists and news outlets in the second half of 2020, according to the data shared by the microblogging platform. The government of India had submitted 128 requests, making up for 35% of such legal requests in the same time frame.

India was followed by Turkey, Pakistan and Russia.

Overall, Twitter had received over 38,500 legal demands in the second half of 2020, specifying 131.9 Lakh accounts.

Japan was the top requester, with 43% (16,600) of all global requests received. India was next in line with about 7,000 demands, making up for 18% of the total legal demands received by the platform.

94% of the total global volume of legal demands originated from only five countries — Japan, India, Russia, Turkey and South Korea. Twitter shared these insights in its transparency report for the second half of the 2020, between July and December.

The Indian government has also pitched itself as the frontrunner in issuing the most number of information requisitions on Twitter. The country has issued 3,600 information requests, of the total 14,561 such information requests Twitter received. It was followed by the United States, Japan and France in this criteria.

Even though India took a lead in these information requests in the second half of 2020. The US was the top demander of user information in the first half of last year. Overall, In 2020, between January to December, the US had issued the most number of information requests.

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