Legal demands to remove content, by half-year

What this dataset measures

Tests whether X under Elon Musk resists or complies with government censorship demands more than Twitter did. Uses only the companies' own published reports so the comparison rests on figures X itself stands behind.

Geography

Worldwide

Unit of observation

One half-year reporting period

Update cadence

Half-yearly when X publishes a report

Curator

FactHub

Supporting files

Source snapshots, manifests, quality reports, documentation, and other materials used to produce or review this release.

• notes.md Documentation · text/markdown · 6.1 KB (6,263 bytes)

  Sources, definitions, cross-checks, gaps and discrepancies for the series.

• build-takedown-dataset.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 16.2 KB (16,586 bytes)

  Script that builds this dataset's content and saved analyses from the CSV.

• dataset-parts.json Documentation · application/json · 21.4 KB (21,894 bytes)

  Sources, table definition and saved analyses for this dataset, as JSON.

Saved analyses

Sources

1. Twitter Transparency Report #20 data download (Jul-Dec 2021), removal and information request CSVs covering 2012-2021 Primary: official data file for 2012-H1 to 2021-H2

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. Publisher copyright; figures reproduced as facts. Figures extracted; source files not redistributed

   Archived copy captured October 10, 2026

2. Twitter Transparency: Removal requests, July-December 2021 Primary: headline compliance rate and cross-check of totals

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. Publisher copyright; figures reproduced as facts. Figures extracted; source files not redistributed

   Archived copy captured October 10, 2026

3. X blog: An update on Twitter Transparency Reporting (April 25, 2023) Primary: summary figures for 2022-H1

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. Publisher copyright; figures reproduced as facts. Figures extracted; source files not redistributed

4. X Global Transparency Report, H1 2024 (PDF) Primary: 2024-H1 figures (p. 13)

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. Publisher copyright; figures reproduced as facts. Figures extracted; source files not redistributed

   Archived copy captured September 29, 2026

5. X Global Transparency Report, H2 2024 (PDF) Primary: 2024-H2 figures (p. 13)

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. Publisher copyright; figures reproduced as facts. Figures extracted; source files not redistributed

   Archived copy captured October 10, 2026

6. X 2025 Transparency Report (HTML version of the H2 2024 report) Primary: cross-check of 2024-H2 figures; also the latest report linked as of 2026-10-10

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. Publisher copyright; figures reproduced as facts. Figures extracted; source files not redistributed

   Archived copy captured October 9, 2026

7. Rest of World: Twitter is complying with more government demands under Elon Musk (2023) Secondary context only: analysis of Lumen database submissions; not part of the series

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. Publisher copyright; figures reproduced as facts. Figures extracted; source files not redistributed

   Archived copy captured October 10, 2026

Limitations and reproducibility

Reproducible: 2012-2021 values are read directly from Twitter's official removal-requests CSV in the report #20 download and match the totals and headline rates printed on each report page for 2019-H2 to 2021-H2. 2022-H1 comes from an X blog post. 2024 values are copied from page 13 of each X Global Transparency Report and match the HTML version. notes.md documents every check and discrepancy.

• Twitter's "legal demands" (2012-2021) include demands from lawyers representing private individuals, not only governments; no government-only total was published. X's 2024 reports call the data government requests but do not define it.
• The rates are not like-for-like. Twitter's compliance rate counts demands where it withheld or removed any reported content, including removals for breaking its own rules; X's 2024 action rate is cases actioned divided by total requests, with "actioned" undefined. Treat the change from about 51% (2021-H2) to 71-82% (2024) as indicative.
• No global compliance rate exists before 2019-H2; those cells are blank, not zero.
• X published no report for 2022-H2, 2023-H1 or 2023-H2, only a summary for 2022-H1, and none after 2024-H2 as of 2026-10-10. Missing periods are left empty, not interpolated.
• 2024 breakdowns group countries into jurisdictions (the EU as one bloc, "All Others"), so the top-jurisdiction columns are not comparable with earlier country rankings. X did not report US removal demands for 2024.
• Totals are driven by a few countries: Japan alone accounted for 46,648 of 72,703 demands in 2024-H1 and 69,186 of 97,006 in 2024-H2. A rising worldwide total mostly reflects demands from Japan and Turkey.
• Batch demands can inflate accounts specified (for example, Indonesia named 102,363 accounts in two demands in 2021-H1).
• Rest of World's 2023 finding of 83% full compliance comes from Twitter's submissions to the Lumen database, a different and partial source, and is not part of this series.