Twitter has been fighting for a long time to loosen restrictions on disclosure of national security-related information requests, but it's an uphill battle.
As part of its latest transparency report, the company says it's made little headway despite meetings with the US Department of Justice and FBI officials.
"With each successive edition, we aim to provide more meaningful and constructive insight into the global government and copyright requests we receive, and their respective impact, with the goal of making this report more compelling and informative for you," Twitter Global Legal Policy Senior Manager Jeremy Kessel wrote in a blog post.
He continued, "However, one section in particular has been notably absent from our all of our previous reports, including today's: our disclosures on national security requests."
Bureaucracy
Kessel wrote that Twitter has requested it be allowed to disclose information regarding these requests in small ranges and specific categories, if not the actual, full numbers of requests.
But the blog post says Twitter made literally zero progress, and the government remains as stubborn as ever.
Twitter even sent the DOJ a draft of a transparency report containing data the company would like to disclose, seeking feedback - and after three months has received no reply.
Weighing options
It's unclear what the next step is for Twitter, but Kessel says the company doesn't plan to back down.
"We are weighing our legal options to provide more transparency to our users," he writes.
Meanwhile the latest transparency report itself reveals rising global requests for account information, content removal, and copyright takedowns across Twitter and Vine, from countries all over the world.
The US portion of the report has also received some enhancements, including a breakdown of requests by territory and state.
