Japan records most tweet removal requests in 1st half of 2021: Twitter

Japan registered 18,518 of all legal demands to have tweets removed from across the world in the first half of 2021, or 43 percent of the total, to be the top requestor to Twitter Inc. in that period.

According to the latest biannual transparency report by the U.S. social media giant, there were 43,387 requests through court orders and other formal demands from governmental entities and lawyers representing individuals for content removal between January and June last year.

The report noted that 93 percent of the requests from Japan were related to laws concerning financial-linked crimes, narcotics and drug control, and obscenity.

The number of legal demands from Japan jumped 11 percent in the said period from the second half of 2020.

Japan, Twitter’s second-largest market after the US, was also the world's top requestor in both the first and second halves of 2020.

Russia, Turkey, India, and South Korea, comprise the top five requestors who made 95 percent of all removal demands.

Russia made 25 percent of global legal demands, with 71 percent about its laws prohibiting the promotion of suicide.

Turkey accounted for 13 percent of the total.