Twitter's Transparency Report Notes Government Requests for Information

Twitter just released something called the "Twitter Transparency Report." The statement includes the number of requests from various world governments for "user information" and "to withhold content". The winner in this grim sweepstakes is none other than the United States. Of the 849 requests around the world, Washington generated 679 -- 75% -- of them. If you throw in Japan's 98 requests, that leaves the remainder of the world with 5% of the requests.

The announcement is quite interesting and, in a way, provocative. Thanks to the financial blog zerohedge.com for alerting its readers to the Twitter initiative.