It seems that Elon Musk’s Twitter is being more accommodating to governments. Since the tycoon took over, the social network has received 971 government requests. Most are related to removing content or providing personal data from anonymous accounts. Of all these requests, the company has complied with 83%especially from countries like Türkiye and India.
The information corresponds to what was reported by Twitter to the lumen database, which collects and analyzes online content removal requests and legal complaints. The rate of fulfillment of this type of request was around 50% during the year prior to Musk’s arrival, in accordance with the transparency report of the company.
Twitter did not refuse to honor any of the 971 requests received during Musk’s tenure. The company complied with 808 of the requests, partially fulfilled another 154 and did not report any specific response for the remaining nine.
One of the cases involves the Indian Ministry of Information. This government office ordered Twitter in January of this year to remove posts that shared footage from a BBC documentary criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The social network complied, removing dozens of posts, including one from a local member of parliament.
The governments with the most demands on Twitter
“I’m not aware of this particular situation… I don’t know what exactly happened,” Elon Musk said of the Indian government case. The tycoon explained that the regulations in this country are very strict with social networks. “If we have to choose between having our people go to prison or abide by the law, we will abide by the law,” Musk said in an interview with the BBC.
The Indian government is the third most requested to Twitter during Musk’s tenure. According to an analysis of the environment rest of world, Türkiye is the country with the most applicationswhile Germany ranks second.
Turkey passed new legislation late last year authorizing the government to block Twitter or other networks when deemed necessary. The law also obliges these companies to share private user data with the authorities. This country made more than half of the requests Twitter received in the last six months.
Germany, for its part, recently approved a legislative reform that prohibits hate speech and extremism on social networks. The authorities can now prosecute people who spread discriminatory messages.
Before Musk’s arrival
Twitter, before the arrival of Elon Musk, actively resisted accepting requests from these governments. In 2014, the social network was banned for two weeks in 2014because the company refused to remove content that linked the government to acts of corruption.
In July 2022, three months before Elon Musk’s inauguration, Twitter sued the Indian government. He accused him of exercising abuse of power by asking him to arbitrarily and disproportionately remove several tweets from his platform.
Things have changed. According to the analysis of rest of worldTwitter complied with more than 100 blocking orders in India since October last year. The censorship targeted accounts of journalists, foreign politicians and artists.