Twitter Inc.’s latest transparency report published today shows the company has received a significant increase in the number of requests from global governments demanding that content from journalists and media companies be taken off the platform.

Twitter said through the first half of 202o, it saw an increase of 26% in governments asking to remove such content. “Accounts of 199 verified journalists and news outlets from around the world were subject to 361 legal demands, a 26% increase in these requests since the previous reporting period,” the report said.

Most of those demands were not met, with Twitter removing only five tweets in total. Twitter didn’t state where those tweets had come from but did say that the majority of requests came from the Indian government. Turkey, Pakistan, and Russia were the other countries with the most requests.

India also topped the lists in regard to information requests on users. In all, Twitter received 4,367 such requests and handed over “some or all of the requested information” in 30% of the cases. India was responsible for 25% of the global information requests and the U.S. was next with 22% of the requests.

Overall, Twitter said, it received 38,524 legal demands to remove content from a total of 131,933 accounts around the world. Only 29% of the demands were met, which amounted to 11,091 tweets being taken down.

Like all social media companies, Twitter has found itself to be in between a rock and a hard place. Some critics have said the company doesn’t do enough to police its platform while others have railed against Twitter for suppressing free speech. That’s exemplified in an ongoing spat Twitter has with the Indian government.

After Twitter didn’t accede to some of its demands under the country’s new internet rules, the government accused Twitter of not complying with the law. Twitter shot back, saying it wouldn’t be intimidated and would try to protect “open public conversation” while keeping a dialogue open with the government. That wasn’t good enough, with an Indian court later stating that after failing to comply with the country’s new information technology law, Twitter would now be held legally responsible for content posted by users in India.

Photo: Jeremy Zero/Unsplash