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Twitter suspensions for promoting terrorism drop yet again
Twitter has released its latest transparency report, covering July-December 2018. During that time, it suspended 166,513 accounts for promoting terrorism. It said 91 percent of them were identified by internal systems, and the figure is 19 percent lower than in the previous six months. The company suggested there's a steady decrease in terrorist groups trying to use the platform, party due to its "zero-tolerance policy enforcement." It noted that, in most cases, it takes action against these accounts while people are setting them up and before they ever post a tweet.
Governments are requesting more and more data from Reddit
Every year, Reddit receives subpoenas, search warrants and court orders from governments, law enforcement and private parties around the world. Often they want information on users -- perhaps in an investigation or public emergency -- or for Reddit to take down content. In 2018, Reddit received more than twice as many government requests for user data compared to 2017 -- 752 compared to 310 the previous year -- the site said in its latest transparency report. The vast majority of requests were to provide information on users, and the site complied with 77 percent of them, all of which came from the US. When the requests were subpoenas or search warrants, Reddit complied over 90 percent of the time.
Apple received over 32,000 user data requests in six months
Apple's bi-annual transparency report is here and it now has its own interactive page on Apple's website. As usual, it details the personal data requests Apple received from governments worldwide. Only the new look makes it easier to review and digest thanks to a slider at the bottom that lets you scroll through report cards for each country. And if you're a fan of the old ways, you can still download a PDF crammed with the same data.
Twitter is considering a transparency report on suspended accounts
As part of his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee today, in a hearing titled "Foreign Influence Operations' Use of Social Media Platforms," Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said that his company is exploring the idea of a transparency report for suspended accounts. He said that, while details of what this document would look like or what information exactly it could include are still being worked out, it's something that's heavily on his mind. Twitter already has a bi-annual transparency report which discloses how many accounts it removes for promoting terrorism, and Dorsey said doing something similar for suspended accounts would only be a matter of figuring out its implementation.
Apple pledges to disclose government app takedown requests
Tech titans have been refining and expanding their transparency reports: Google made its biannual documents easier to read, while Facebook added inquiries related to copyright, trademark and counterfeiting. Today, Apple released their report, and nestled inside is a pledge to disclose government requests to remove applications from the App Store in the future.
The EFF wants you to know why Facebook removed your post
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) wants more transparency from social media sites when it comes to takedowns. Much like reports companies issue for government requests, the EFF would like to see Facebook, Google and other platforms issue quarterly reports of how many user posts are removed. The organization would also like to see detailed explanations about said takedowns and for an appeals policy to be implemented "to boost accountability," it writes.
Twitter has removed over 1.2 million accounts for promoting terrorism
Twitter released its biannual Transparency Report today and it shared stats on how it continues to handle terrorist content. Overall, since August of 2015, the company has removed over 1.2 million accounts that promoted terrorism. During the second half of last year, it permanently suspended 274,460 accounts for this reason, which is slightly less than what was removed during the first half of 2017. Twitter notes that it has now seen a decline in these sorts of removals across three reporting periods and it attributes that pattern to "years of hard work making our site an undesirable place for those seeking to promote terrorism."
Google releases info on 2.4 million 'right to be forgotten' requests
Google has received 2.4 million "right to be forgotten" requests since 2014, most of which came from private individuals, according to its latest transparency report. Europe's biggest court passed the right to be forgotten law in 2014, compelling the tech titan to remove personal info from its search engine upon request. In the report, Google has revealed that it complied with 43.3 percent of all the requests it's gotten and has also detailed the nature of those takedown pleas.
Facebook's government data requests continue to rise
Facebook releases a bi-annual report that details all the data requests it gets from governments. The company just shared its latest Transparency Report for the first half of 2017. In addition to the usual information, like account data, content restrictions and internet disruptions, the company is including reports from rights holders related to copyright, trademark and intellectual property counterfeiting.
Google makes its government snooping reports clearer
Google's Transparency Report can be overwhelmingly tough to navigate, especially if it's your first time looking at all the data requests the company gets. To make things easier to understand, the big G has redesigned its interface to show clearer data visualizations and add more context for each type of information. More importantly, though, the overhauled report now features a Recent Updates section. You can simply hop over to it to get an overview of the latest government and law enforcement requests since your last visit.
Judge sides with Twitter in lawsuit against the US government
The lawsuit Twitter filed against the US government over the right to fully disclose national security requests hasn't been resolved yet, but at least it isn't dead. US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has allowed the case to go forward after the court deliberated the Department of Justice's motion for summary judgment. The social network filed the lawsuit in late 2014, arguing that it should be allowed to post the exact number of national security letters and FISA court orders it gets in its transparency reports. As it stands, tech companies can only state the number of letters and orders they receive in big number ranges. That's why you'll see figures like 0 to 499, 500 to 999 and so on and so forth in their transparency reports.
Apple saw a jump in security requests at the end of 2016
Transparency reports are the main way that tech companies can tell us that the authorities have been asking to look at user data. In its report for the second half of 2016, Apple said that the number of national security requests spiked considerably. Between January and June, the company received around 3,000 of the requests, but between July and December, that number had leapt to closer to 6,000.
Microsoft wasn't hammered by surveillance requests in 2016
A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft released its Transparency Report revealing that it had received "1,000 to 1,499 surveillance requests for foreign intelligence purposes (known as FISA) from January to June 2016." There's only one problem though -- it didn't. Today, Microsoft updated the report to say that stat was an error, and the number of orders it had received in 2016 is actually somewhere between 0 - 499, as it has been in previous years. Unfortunately, the company is not allowed to release more specific data, so we don't know if it has actually changed or by how much. A spokesperson told Reuters the mistake was a "human error."
Microsoft hammered by surveillance requests in 2016 (updated)
US authorities must have spent more time at Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court last year than in 2015. According to Microsoft's latest transparency report, the tech titan received 1,000 to 1,499 surveillance requests for foreign intelligence purposes (known as FISA) from January to June 2016. That's at least double the 0 to 499 requests it received within the same period the year before and then again from July to December 2015. Those figures look weird, because the government only allows companies to report FISA requests in a wide range of numbers. We unfortunately don't know the exact figures, though Microsoft's report is pretty telling anyway.
Twitter triples suspensions of pro-terrorist accounts in one year
If it wasn't already clear that Twitter is serious about stamping out pro-terrorist accounts, it is now. The social network has posted its transparency report for the second half of 2016, which reveals that it suspended over 376,000 accounts for backing terrorism. That's triple the 125,000 it took down one year earlier, and a still-hefty 60 percent more than the 235,000 accounts it pulled in the first half of 2016. While some officials still don't think Twitter is up to snuff (it's not proactively reporting extremist material to police, the UK says), there's no doubt that it's considerably more aggressive.
Cloudflare's transparency report reveals secret FBI subpoena
Tech titans like Google and Apple aren't the only ones that receive government requests for customer information -- lesser-known companies like Cloudflare get them, as well. The service, which makes websites load faster, has revealed that it's been fighting a national security letter (NSL) from the FBI since 2013 in its latest transparency report. NSLs are subpoenas the government hands out when it wants to gather information for national security purposes. It also comes with a gag order, which is why the company wasn't able to include the information in previous transparency reports.
Google shows the web is a lot more secure than it was a year ago
As we spend more time online, the need for secure browsing and communications has become more and more important. Messaging apps now incorporate encryption as standard and many of your favorite websites (including this one) are moving to HTTPS to protect their visitors. For the longest time, Google has helped champion that movement by rolling out secure apps and services, but its latest move is all about highlighting the good work of others. The web is a lot more secure than it was just a year and a half ago, and thanks to its new Transparency Report metric, Google has the stats to prove it.
Yahoo's latest transparency report reads like tonedeaf fluff
Following all the trouble it has had lately, Yahoo has released its annual transparency report. Globally, the firm had 20,511 data requests, with almost half of them coming from the United States government (9,408). This doesn't tell the entire story, though. The company also issued a "users first" outline that reads like little more than PR fluff. "Our users place their trust in us, and we take seriously their privacy and our role in promoting freedom of expression," the report reads. "Our commitment to and concern for your privacy, security and freedom of expression are demonstrated in our users first approach to government activities." Sure, Yahoo.
Twitter reports increase in info and removal requests for 2016
Twitter has published its transparency report for January to June 2016, and one thing's clear: requests for user info and content removal keep on piling up. The microblogging website received two percent more government requests for account information compared to the second half of 2015. That's not a dramatic change compared to the increase in numbers between the first and the second half of last year, but it still affected 8 percent more accounts than before and shows that governments around the world are still keeping an eye on Twitter activity.
CIA and NSA doubled their searches for Americans' data in 2 years
So much for US intelligence scaling back its curiosity in the wake of Edward Snowden's leaks. An Office of the Director of National Intelligence transparency report has revealed that the CIA and NSA doubled the number of searches for the content of Americans' communications in an NSA database between 2013 and 2015. Where the two agencies made about 2,100 such requests three years ago, they searched 4,672 times last year. Just what triggered the spike isn't clear. There's a chance that some of the increase comes from repetitive searches (that is, running similar queries more than once), but they were also factors in 2013 -- the odds are that activity went up.
