Advertisement

Twitter receives NSA requests for user information for less than one percent of users

Much of the report has been redacted.

By Thor Benson

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Twitter released its transparency report on Monday, and it claims less than one percent of users are affected by intelligence agencies' information requests.

The NSA and other intelligence agencies currently use Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court orders and national security letters to request information from companies like Google and Facebook. The companies are currently not allowed to say how many they receive, but companies like Google and Facebook bargained with the government to be allowed to give a wide range that the number is within. Twitter does not agree with the range policy and has sued the government to be allowed to give specific numbers, but no resolution has come yet.

Advertisement

Twitter's heavily redacted new transparency report does have the exact number, but it's blacked out. "These [redacted] requests affected a total of [redacted] users, out of approximately 240 million active user accounts. (That's just [redacted] millionths of one percent of our users.)" the report says.

As The Verge points out, that means the number could be under 20 people. The low number is likely due to the fact almost all of Twitter is already public, so agencies wouldn't have to request much information from Twitter.

Advertisement

Latest Headlines

Advertisement

Trending Stories

Advertisement

Follow Us

Advertisement