Twitter has just released its latest transparency report, revealing a 50 percent rise in the number of user data requests over the last six months.

A total of 54 governments made requests for data tied to specific user accounts, with eight of those nations doing so for the first time. In total, Twitter received 2,058 requests from governments in the first six months of this year, which is 46 percent more than in the previous six months.

Twitter said the requests pertained to 3,131 accounts, which is 48 percent more than in its last transparency report. The company agreed to 52 percent of the requests.

“The continued rise may be attributed to Twitter’s ongoing international expansion, but also appears to follow the industry trend,” the company wrote. “As always, we continue to fight to provide notice to affected users when we’re not otherwise prohibited”.

Not surprisingly the United States government was the greediest of the lot, accounting for 61 percent of all requests that Twitter received. It also seems that U.S. authorities are good at getting their way, since 72 percent of its requests for data were approved, a higher success rate than any other nation.

Coming in second was Japan, which made 192 requests for data – nine percent of the total. Saudi Arabia was in 3rd place with 189 data requests, while the UK government made 78 requests in total, achieving a 46 percent success rate.

Twitter’s figures follow a key legal ruling yesterday that could see law enforcement agencies granted even more power to access people’s data. Microsoft has just been ordered by a U.S. judge to allow investigators to access its data facility in Ireland. Unless Microsoft’s appeal succeeds, the decision could set a precedent for courts to force other companies to open up their offshore data centers as well.

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