Social media sites are a revolution of the modern era, but they are a lot more than they seem. Social media platforms, apart from being places where people can stay in touch with one another and share events that are occurring in their lives, are a place where vast amounts of data can be gathered. From data on where people are going to what they are doing all the way to data regarding their political opinions. This is all pretty sensitive information, and the modern internet user is rightly worried about where the info goes and who obtains it.
Governments frequently request social media sites to give them data for a variety of reasons. This is rather concerning in and of itself, but it seems that there is even more cause for alarm because of the fact that governments have been requesting data even more than usual according to Twitter. The social media giant released a transparency report a few days ago that stated that government requests for data have gone up by ten percent in the first half of 2018. This is the biggest increase in requests that the social media site has seen in the last three years.
To be specific, almost seven thousand data requests were received that asked for information on nearly seventeen thousand accounts. Requests from the US comprise a third of the total number of requests, with Japan and the UK following closely behind. If you look at general requests by the government including requests to remove data from the site, the number has gone up by an astounding eighty percent. This is definitely concerning for anyone that values their privacy.
Government interference in the internet has long been a problem, and it seems that the problem is only getting worse.
Photo: GettyImages
Governments frequently request social media sites to give them data for a variety of reasons. This is rather concerning in and of itself, but it seems that there is even more cause for alarm because of the fact that governments have been requesting data even more than usual according to Twitter. The social media giant released a transparency report a few days ago that stated that government requests for data have gone up by ten percent in the first half of 2018. This is the biggest increase in requests that the social media site has seen in the last three years.
To be specific, almost seven thousand data requests were received that asked for information on nearly seventeen thousand accounts. Requests from the US comprise a third of the total number of requests, with Japan and the UK following closely behind. If you look at general requests by the government including requests to remove data from the site, the number has gone up by an astounding eighty percent. This is definitely concerning for anyone that values their privacy.
Government interference in the internet has long been a problem, and it seems that the problem is only getting worse.
Photo: GettyImages
