Twitter prohibits US intelligence agencies from using analytics service

New Delhi: Twitter Inc in a major move has decided to block US intelligence agencies from accessing Dataminr, that sends real time alerts about the unfolding terrors and political unrest, according to the reports of the Wall Street Journal.

Twitter owns 5% stake in Dataminr, the only company it authorizes both to access its entire real-time stream of public tweets and sell it to clients.

Dataminr disclosed this on its website where it clearly told intelligence agencies that Twitter no longer wants to provide service to them.

Twitter's justified this move by stating that it's a company policy under which they can ban any third-party companies from selling information to the government agencies for the purpose of surveillance.

The social media giant also clarified that this move will not affect Dataminr service to financial industry, news media, or any other client outside intelligence media.