Twitter releases first ever Transparency Report including policy violation stats for the first time

Twitter released its biannual Transparency Report on Thursday outlining current trends in government information requests, content removal requests, and other privacy matters regarding the network.

This year's report marks the thirteenth time in the company's history that Twitter has expounded on its privacy practices in such tremendous detail. The new report also expands on the type of data Twitter is making publicly available.

In a blog post published in tandem with the Transparency Report, Twitter explains that for the first time ever, along with government requests for information and content removal, the company has included stats on the enforcement of Twitter’s own policies.

This report covers the first half of 2018, and the last half of the year will be covered in an update at a later time, typically published in the first quarter of  the ensuing year. The data in the report includes requests made on Twitter, Periscope, and even the now-defunct Vine.

Perhaps the most shocking detail from all of this is the gigantic uptick in government requests for information.

“Twitter received roughly 80 percent more global legal demands impacting approximately more than twice as many accounts, compared to the previous reporting period,” according to the report. 

However, much like the last reporting period, around 87 percent of those demands came from just two countries: Russia and Turkey. Altogether legal demands to remove content came from 38 different countries for a total of 27,811 Twitter accounts.