Africans, Asians and Australians are all European now, as least as far as Twitter is concerned.

The micro-blogging site updated its privacy rules over the weekend and all non-US accounts will now be managed by Twitter International, headquartered in Ireland.

This means that stricter European data protection laws will apply rather than US rules.

Three quarters of all Twitter accounts are held outside the US, and this new move should put their information beyond the reach of the NSA.

“As more people around the world use our services, we’ve expanded our operations to improve how we support our users globally. The changes to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy indicate this expansion and better reflect how we’re providing our services to users,” said Twitter.

The Irish Data Protection Commissioner’s office said it had only “short advance notice” of the move but said it planned to meet with the company to discuss the implications, reported the Irish Times.

The Irish DPC has been criticised elsewhere in Europe as being lax on data protection, but recently doubled its workforce and is due to open a new office in Dublin. EU data protection rules are currently being overhauled and a proposed one-stop-shop system could see Ireland with even more responsibility for data protection.

US Twitter accounts will continue to be managed in the US. ®