In the first six months of 2015, UK government agencies and police departments made 299 “requests for information” of Twitter, compared to 116 in the 6 months previous.
The UK is the most prolific Twitter-snooping government in the EU. Twitter responded to 52% of UK government requests, turning down the other 48% for lack of legal standing, credibility and/or merit.
The data comes from Twitter’s latest Transparency Report.
It said the United States was behind most of the requests, followed by Japan and Turkey, although the UK remained “a top requester”.
Twitter said it had also received nine content removal requests from UK government agencies and the police.
The company said removal requests relate to matters such as defamatory statements or prohibited content. It rejected the nine requests made in the UK.
The UK Home Office said it could not comment on the report because Twitter had not broken down which of the 299 requests had been made by government agencies.
“Thanks to the transparency reports of internet companies, we know police are already accessing data with far greater frequency than many other countries,” said Emma Carr, director of campaign group Big Brother Watch.