Twitter employees mainly male and white, says it has 'lot of work to do'

Whites account for 59 percent of its total U.S. employees, followed by Asians with 29 percent. Blacks make up for 2 percent of the U.S. staff while Hispanic or Latino workers were at 3 percent. Twitter, like other tech companies, only provided ethnicity data for its U.S. workers.

Jackson's Rainbow Push Coalition said that over 25,000 petitions were delivered to Twitter this past weekend demanding that they release their workforce data. "While slow to release these paltry and pathetic numbers, it's a step in the right direction," the coalition said in a statement. The Rainbow Push Coalition joined black empowerment group, ColorOfChange.org, to launch a Twitter-based campaign to challenge the company.

"There is no talent deficit, there's an opportunity deficit," the coalition said. It has previously criticized tech companies for claiming that they find it difficult to recruit and retain women and minorities.

Jackson said last week that tech companies cannot explain away their hiring disparities by citing an issue with talent among blacks. Google, for example, has pointed to data that showed that blacks and Hispanics each account for under 10 percent of U.S. college graduates and each earn fewer than 10 percent of degrees in computer science majors. The argument ignores the fact that black people are also severely underrepresented in nontechnical Silicon Valley roles, Jackson said.

Twitter has employee-led groups to promote inclusiveness and has also partnered with several organizations that address the same issue.

John Ribeiro covers outsourcing and general technology breaking news from India for The IDG News Service. Follow John on Twitter at @Johnribeiro. John's e-mail address is john_ribeiro@idg.com