Twitter released its latest transparency report highlighting trends in government request for its users' account information.

Twitter first started its biannual transparency report on Jul. 2, 2012, and has maintained the tradition in revealing government's request for user data, content removal, or copyright notices.

According to the social media network, 10 new countries entered its latest transparency report since data collection started on Jul. 1, 2013. With the latest transparency report, Twitter disclosed government requests from 46 countries.

Demand for user information has increased since the first transparency report in 2012. The 2012 transparency report, which gathered information from Jan. 1 to Jun. 30, revealed 849 information requests from governments worldwide. The number for information requests gradually increased nearly by 200 during the next three reports. For the latest 2013 report, detailing information requests from Jul. 1 to Dec. 31, Twitter received 1,410 requests.

"We've seen an overall increase of 22 [percent] in account information requests since the prior reporting period," noted Twitter. "The rise may be attributed to Twitter's international expansion. As always, we continue to fight to provide notice to affected users when we're not otherwise prohibited."

The top country with the most account information requests belongs to the United States (U.S.). The U.S. requested information from Twitter 833 times, and social network produced 69 percent of information. The U.S. accounted for 59 percent of all information requests during the latest six-month period for the transparency report.

For the first time, Twitter noted which requests were non-emergency and emergency requests. Of the 833 total information requests, 733 were categorized as non-emergency.

Of the 833 cases, 55 percent were subpoenas, which does not require a judge's signature and seeks the account holder's basic information such as email address and IP logs associated to a specific account.

Seven percent of the government requests were court orders, which unlike subpoenas, it does require a judge's signature.

Finally, 26 percent of the information requests were search warrants, which is considered to be the most difficult process since law enforcement must show probable cause and a judge's signature before properly executing the warrant. Search warrants are required to disclose an account holder's contents such as tweets and direct messages.

The total information requests by the U.S. are down from the 902 made during the first transparency report in 2013.

According to Twitter, it does notify users when demands for their information have been requested. It is, however, possible Twitter won't notify the user due to a statute or court order such as 18 U.S. Code § 2705(b).

Twitter did note it does not comply with requests if it fails to identify a Twitter account or if the account owner challenges the requests after the social network notified them.

"Indeed, transparency is critical for building and maintaining user trust and trust from the larger public, and for fostering a healthy and vibrant global community committed to defending free expression," Twitter's Global Legal Policy Manager Jeremy Kessel stated.

Twitter has become very popular in recent years notably by the Latino population. The social media network hired veteran marketing expert Nuria Santamaria last November to be the company's multicultural strategist. Twitter has presented advertisement agencies figures from a forthcoming study revealing Latinos are more active on Twitter than any other group. While Twitter does not ask users about their race, it has classified demographics based on expressed interests and follows.

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