{"id":339375,"date":"2017-04-27T00:47:21","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T16:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1481788"},"modified":"2017-04-27T00:47:21","modified_gmt":"2017-04-26T16:47:21","slug":"uk-government-irate-at-twitters-surveillance-api-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/uk-government-irate-at-twitters-surveillance-api-crackdown\/","title":{"rendered":"UK government irate at Twitter\u2019s surveillance API crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The UK government has criticized Twitter for restricting police and intelligence agency access to data\u00a0which it says could be used to identify terrorist plots,\u00a0according to\u00a0the Telegraph<\/a> newspaper.<\/p>\n

The newspaper quotes\u00a0a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May, who said:\u00a0\u201cWe are protesting this decision. We are in talks with Twitter on getting access to this data.\u201d The spokesman also called for\u00a0social media companies to play a role in the government\u2019s fight against terrorism.<\/p>\n

TechCrunch understands the disputed data\u00a0is the same\u00a0data that Twitter sells to private sector clients and advertising companies.<\/p>\n

The Telegraph reports the government had\u00a0paid a third-party company for a\u00a0service that tracked terms related to potential terror attacks \u2014 before this\u00a0was blocked by Twitter cutting off access to its API.<\/p>\n

In December<\/a>, Twitter similarly blocked US law enforcement\u00a0agencies from accessing real-time data via a deal with Dataminr, following pressure from\u00a0the American Civil Liberties Union<\/a>. The Telegraph suggests the UK Home Office had\u00a0also been working with Dataminr before access was cut off. (To complicate matters further Twitter part owns Dataminr.)<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Twitter declined to\u00a0comment \u2014 but pointed to a\u00a0blog post<\/a>\u00a0from November where it discusses its concern about\u00a0its\u00a0APIs being used to create products to \u201ctrack or profile protesters and activists\u201d, including by law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n

Twitter\u00a0wrote then:<\/p>\n

\n

We prohibit developers using the Public APIs and Gnip data products from allowing law enforcement \u2014 or any other entity \u2014 to use Twitter data for surveillance purposes. Period. The fact that our Public APIs and Gnip data products provide information that people choose to share publicly does not change our policies in this area. And if developers violate our policies, we will take appropriate action<\/a>, which can include suspension and termination of access to Twitter\u2019s Public APIs and data products.<\/p>\n

We have an internal process to review use cases for Gnip data products when new developers are onboarded and, where appropriate, we may reject all or part of a requested use case. Over the coming months, you\u2019ll see us take on expanded enforcement and compliance efforts, including adding more resources for swiftly investigating and acting on complaints about the misuse of Twitter\u2019s Public APIs and Gnip data products.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Prior to this, last October<\/a>, Twitter suspended data\u00a0access for Geofeedia, a\u00a0location-based, social media surveillance system used by government offices, private security firms, marketers and others.<\/p>\n

TechCrunch understands discussions are ongoing between the UK government and Twitter to try to resolve the issue.\u00a0The data being requested would be anonymized, according to a source familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n

Social media companies have come under increasing political pressure in the UK<\/a> to do more to help combat counterterrorism efforts. Home Secretary Amber Rudd\u00a0held talks<\/a> with Twitter and other major tech platforms in March to push for them to built tools to tackle the spread of terrorist propaganda on their platforms.<\/p>\n

Featured Image: Bryce Durbin\/TechCrunch<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" The UK government has criticized Twitter for restricting police and intelligence agency access to data which it says could be used to identify terrorist plots, according to the Telegraph newspaper. Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[59,66,26],"class_list":["post-339375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-media","tag-techcrunch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}