Number of Pakistani accounts reported to Twitter drops

The number of accounts reported by Pakistani authorities to Twitter dropped to around 2,300 between July and December 2018 from 3,000 in the first six months of the year, according to a biannual report of the social networking website.

The website's transparency report released on Friday said that between July and December, the government sent requests for removal of 193 accounts and reported 2,349 profiles to Twitter, reports Dawn news.

While Twitter did not completely remove any account, it removed some content from 204 accounts for violating Twitter's Terms of Reference as compared to 141 in Jan-Jun 2018.

After the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party took over the government in July, 192 removal requests were sent by the government and law enforcement agencies and only one request was sent through a court order. 

In January-June 2018, three requests for account removal were sent through court orders.

In recent months, users, both local and international, have reported they have received notices from Twitter that termed their tweets "in violation of Pakistani law".

In terms of information requests for accounts, Pakistan made requests for 17 accounts and specified 23 in the second half of 2018 as compared to 22 information requests and 54 accounts specified in the first six months of the year. IANS