15 May 2012

Twitter hits 10 million active users in the UK

 By Rachel Hawkes

Micro-blogging platform Twitter has revealed to the BBC that it now has more than 10 million active Twitter users throughout the UK.

Globally, Twitter has 140 million users but the UK leads the rest of the world when it comes to accessing the platform via their mobile handsets with 80% of users choosing to do so (compared to just 55% in other countries).  The figures have been released as the company marks 12 months since opening offices in London, where Twitter now employees more than 30 staff.

Twitter also took the opportunity to state its intention to build closer relationships with the UK government and policy makers.  UK general manager Tony Wang commented that the company will be hiring a public policy manager to work with “the government, various ministries, members of parliament as well as law enforcement. There are a umber of different needs that they have – and there’s a lot of very unique ways that they’re using Twitter.”

Earlier this year there were claims that Twitter helped fuel the London riots in August 2011 and disclosed the name of footballer Ryan Giggs despite a media injunction. Wang told the BBC both incidents emphasised the need for Twitter to have a flexible approach to international operations.

In January Twitter announced plans to much international criticism, that it could now block tweets on a per country basis.  The microblogging service is also currently contesting
a US court order in New York that requests it hand over the message history of user involved in the Occupy Wall Street protest, arguing that its terms clearly state that users own their content.

Categories: Social media, News

Tags: social media, Twitter, microblogging, Twitter UK, government, social media policy, London riots, ryan giggs, censorship