I got the impression the requirement on new companies was to satisfy the Intelligence Community, not the existing tech companies.
The presumable idea being that if a new email/social provider pops up and has, say, a 2,000 subscribers after the end of the first year, saying that there have been <500 NSLs is more individually-specific than saying there were 500-1000 (or whatever) for a site like GMail or Facebook.
The presumable idea being that if a new email/social provider pops up and has, say, a 2,000 subscribers after the end of the first year, saying that there have been <500 NSLs is more individually-specific than saying there were 500-1000 (or whatever) for a site like GMail or Facebook.