Feds Go After Social Media Giant Concerned for Privacy – And It’s Not Facebook

Canada’s federal government is formally requesting Twitter testify before a House of Commons committee studying privacy and social media, after they refused to voluntarily appear when initially approached.

Second only to Facebook, Twitter is one of the most popular social media networking services, with an estimated 500 million users. Facebook has over 600 million users, while Google Plus draws in an estimated 400 million users.

Both Facebook and Google voluntarily appeared before the Canadian government’s committee – yet Twitter refused.

Last May, the Commons committee began investigating how social media companies protect the personal information of their users, because of high profile interventions from Canada’s Privacy Commissioner with Facebook and Google just weeks earlier.

Usually it’s social media mega-site Facebook which is in the news for its self-serving privacy policies, but this time, the social network seemingly with something to hide is Twitter.

Twitter’s refusal to appear before the committee hearing falls amidst the company’s aggressive positioning to take-over the top spot in social media.

Many companies have gone out of business, as Twitter adds features and functionality to its social networking service, which previously could only be found through third-party companies. 

As Twitter adds these new perks to its service, it disables the ability of these third-party companies from providing the same service, by changing its Application Programming Interface (API).

Twitter has been consistent in denying third-party companies from providing apps which “replicate its core user experience,” as the company puts it. However, as Twitter adds to that “core user experience” it is putting companies out of business and people out of work.

However, this past August, Twitter announced major changes to its API, and since then, has been rolling out many features previously provided by third-party companies to its service.

As these new features are rolled into the giant social networking site – commonly called the world’s largest microblogging site – one has to question how the company is managing its member’s personal information?

Perhaps Twitter has been so busy gobbling up third-party features, the top brass has let that part of their business slide?

Or perhaps Twitter has discovered new ways to use that personal private information, which they fear could land them in the penalty box at a federal government investigation into privacy and social media?

We’ll have to wait and see, because the Canadian government’s House of Commons Committee hasn't sent out the formal letter to appear to Twitter as of this writing.

The motion to formally call Twitter to testify came after a representative from Facebook took committee members through that company's privacy policies.

Although Facebook’s relationship with Canada’s Privacy Commissioner has improved much since their initial meeting, by exploring the types of personal information collected, managed and stored with the world’s largest social networking service, the Canadian government is convinced they need Twitter’s participation to protect the interests of Canadians, and ultimately all of its users.

Canadians are among the top users of social media, along with the United States and the United Kingdom.

There are just over 10 million Twitter accounts based in Canada, according to a recent study by a Paris research group.

Another recent study says that Facebook has about 18 million Canadian users, more than half the country's total population.