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SA government leaves Twitter alone

Cape Town - Governments around the world are increasing their efforts to compel Twitter to provide user information, but South Africa has largely left the micro-blogging platform alone.

According to data from the Twitter Transparency Report, global government requests for user information have spiked.

Requests for personal information jumped from 2 871 in the last six months of 2014 to 4 263 in the first half of 2015. Put into perspective, there were 4 929 requests for user information for 2014.

Most of the requests come from the US (2 436) affecting 6 324 accounts. Twitter complied in 80% of those cases, but in Russia the company rejected all 42 information requests.

"During the latest reporting period, we have received inquiries from four new countries - Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Poland, and Serbia - since our last report, bringing the total to 62 countries since the inception of Twitter's Transparency Report," the company said.

South Africa, though, registered no requests for user information at all, the Twitter report revealed.

Removal requests

And in the rest of Africa, the only country to make a specific information request was Kenya. Twitter, though, rejected the request from the East African country.

Twitter has also seen an uptick in government content removal requests. There were 1 003 global requests for content removals in the first half of 2015 led by Russia with 68. Twitter complied in 63% of cases.

Twitter has also tailored its system to allow specific content to be removed in one jurisdiction, while allowing the content to remain visible in other countries.

"Governments generally make removal requests for content that may be illegal in their respective jurisdictions," Twitter said, adding that content which contravenes its terms are not included in its Transparency Report.

Removal requests are also trending upward with 1 227 requests in 2014.

Because tweets are regarded public information, South Africans should be aware that they need to act responsibly.

"I think that social media users need to wise up a little; they need to become a little bit more sensible as digital citizens," social media consultant for Afrosocialmedia Samantha Fleming told Fin24 recently.

Should the SA government be looking more closely at Twitter? Tell us your thoughts by clicking here.

- Follow Duncan on Twitter

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