The government really wants to get its hands on Twitter’s user data

Governments want your data now more than ever. That’s according to Twitter, which released its twice-yearly transparency report on Tuesday, revealing that the number of times governments requested user account information jumped about 52% from 2,871 requests during the second half of 2014 to 4,363 requests during the first half of this year. The social network cooperated with 58% of those requests by handing over data. Jeremy Kessel, Twitter’s senior manager of global legal policy, called it, the “largest increase between reporting periods” the social network has ever seen. Just as notable: Periscope alone received 1,391 copyright takedown requests during the same period — a startling number given the popular live streaming app debuted in March.