Number of Twitter Accounts Reported by Pakistani Authorities Drops

According to a biannual report of the social networking website, the number of Twitter accounts reported by Pakistani authorities to Twitter has dropped from 3,000 in the first six months of the year to around 2,300 between July and December last year.

The transparency report of the website stated that from July to December the government requested the removal of 193 accounts and reported 2,349 profiles to Twitter.

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Even though Twitter did not remove any account, it did remove some of the content from 204 accounts that violated Twitter’s Terms of Reference in comparison to 141 in January to June 2018.

Since Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party came into power 192 account removal requests were sent by different law enforcement agencies and the government. Only one request was sent via a court order. However, from January to June 2018, 3 requests for account removal was sent via court orders.

Users both local and international reported that they received notices from Twitter that called their tweet “in violation of Pakistani law”.

For information requests for accounts, Pakistan made 22 information requests and 54 accounts specified from January to June 2018 and 17 accounts requested and specified 23 in the second half of 2018.

Twitter declined the requests for account information and removal.

Prime Minister’s Focal Person on Digital Media Arslan Khalid said,  “Twitter’s non-compliance and lack of willingness to work with governments are reflected in this report as globally the request rate has dropped.”