Between the start of January and the end of June, Twitter has shared information on just two accounts with Australian government and law enforcement officials. Twitter’s transparency report shows that the social network has complied with 100 per cent of government requests for info, but that represents only two requests.
No information on what those requests entailed is available to the public. In both those cases, those requests for info were enacted under Twitter’s emergency disclosure provisions, which lets law enforcement officers submit a web form to appeal for data on users where that data is ostensibly required urgently:
If there is an exigent emergency that involves the danger of death or serious physical injury to a person that Twitter may have information necessary to prevent, law enforcement officers can submit an emergency disclosure request through our web form.
In line with our Privacy Policy, we may disclose account information to law enforcement in response to a valid emergency disclosure request.
Twitter, Inc. evaluates emergency disclosure requests on a case-by-case basis in compliance with relevant U.S. law (e.g., 18 U.S.C. § 2702(b)(8)). If we receive information that provides us with a good faith belief that there is an exigent emergency involving the danger of death or serious physical injury to a person, we may provide information necessary to prevent that harm, if we have it.
In Australia, for the first six months of the year, Australia represented only two out of the 2058 total information requests, the most in any six month period since recording began. The US had the most requests with 1257, while Japan was the second most polled with 192. Twitter produced information in 36 per cent of Japanese cases and 72 per cent of US cases. [Twitter]