Twitter disclosed the latest law enforcement requests for user data, and a few Latin American countries have been highlighted.

The social media website released its newest 2013 transparency report for data requests from July 1 to Dec. 31. According to Twitter, 10 new countries entered in its latest transparency report, bringing a total of 46 countries.

"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.

Twitter's history of transparency reports have included the number of information requests from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. The aforementioned countries, however, might not always be repeat offenders and be left off a future transparency report due to no information requests set by respective governments.

Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela's information requests were not revealed in the latest report despite taking part in previous data. It could indicate Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela issued no law enforcement information requests during the second half of 2013.

Of the remaining Latin American countries, the Brazilian government issued the most account information requests with 20. According to Twitter, 30 percent of the requested data were produced to officials. The 20 account information requests are down by 14 requests from the same period in 2012. For the July 1 to Dec. 31, 2012 report, 34 requests were made, but Twitter only disclosed 12 percent of the information.

Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico's information requests were not directly specified, as Twitter noted, "To minimize potential risk to ongoing investigations and matters of public safety, we do not include specific numbers for countries where we've received fewer than 10 requests; instead you'll see '< 10' in the relevant cells."

Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico had either 10 or less information requests and 0 percent of information was produced to officials.

The top country with the most account information requests went to the United States (U.S.) with 833 requests.

Twitter first published its biannual transparency report on July 2, 2012. 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.

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For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO

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