Demands to remove posts by journalists on the rise: Twitter

Legal demands to take down content posted by journalists has been on a consistent rise across the world in the last decade, Twitter officials said on Friday while hosting an open Spaces audio session on the social media service.

“In this transparency report, we received demands to remove 198,000 unique accounts,” said Yoel Roth, senior director, Safety & Integrity. “While there is a demand for transparency from companies, governments are not being as transparent.”

Attacking governments directly, Twitter said that there needs to be public clarity on the requests filed by the state as well. “Over the years, we have seen governments become more and more aggressive in terms of silencing voices,” said Nick Pickles, the company’s senior director for Global Public Policy.