Twitter bars spy agencies from buying bulk user data from analytics firm

Social network says it has 'never authorized' Dataminr to sell information to US intelligence agencies, but officials say tools have been used previously

Twitter has blocked US spies from buying bulk data on its users from a data analytics company.

Until now, US national security agencies, including the FBI and CIA, had been able to query treasure troves of Twitter data through software from Dataminr, the New York-based analytics company in which Twitter owns a 5% stake. Agents could enter search terms such as "Isis" or "jihad" and view more tweets, over a longer period, than what a standard Twitter search would offer, people familiar with the process said.