Twitter censorship creates global furor
Twitter censorship is creating global furor. This Friday Twitter came out with some plans to allow country-specific censorship of tweets that might break local laws Twitter. Twitter, since its launch in 2006, has been a favourite instrument for protestors and activists around the world. The current plan has made triggered much uproar and global outrage.
Twitter has known to be the source and icon of free expression for millions that have quickly become the patron of the website. In the short 140 character limit of posts by its patrons, many protests have been launched and opinions voiced that have majorly affected the course of action in politics or other social areas of the global community. The current plan of Twitter is a sudden role reversal of such an image by the website. Many have proposed Twitter boycott and the outrage is expressed even in the website itself in the form of angry tweets.
The popular demand is to scrap the censorship initiative be scrapped.
Egyptian activist Mahmoud Salem tweeted, “This is very bad news. Is it safe to say that (hash) Twitter is selling us out?”
Twitter has been dopted by Chinese population despite being blocked as per the authorities. Ai Weiwei, an artist and activist in China tweeted in response to the news, “If Twitter censors, I’ll stop tweeting.”
The general response to this move by Twitter can better be judged by the headline that Forbes magazine technology blog ran, “Twitter Commits Social Suicide”.
As per the new enforced policy, when a tweet breaks the law of a country, it can be taken down there and still be seen elsewhere. Previously an erased Twitter could not be viewed anywhere else in the world too.
Twitter has stated that a censorship notice would be posted whenever a tweet is removed. The removal requests from governments, companies and individuals will also be posted on the website, it said.
Alexander Macgilliviray, Twitter’s general counsel is of the opinion that critics are going in an overdrive without solid reasons. He said, “This is a good thing for freedom of expression, transparency and accountability. This launch is about us keeping content up whenever we can and to be extremely transparent with the world when we don’t. I would hope people realize our philosophy hasn’t changed.”
Macgilliviray is also backed by some advocates of Internet free expression. Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is one such person who said for Twitter, “Twitter is being pilloried for being honest about something that all Internet platforms have to wrestle with. As long as this censorship happens in a secret way, we’re all losers.”
This effort by Twitter has also been applauded by State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland who said that Twitter was being upfront about the potential for censorship where some other companies are not as forthright. She suggested that slamming the policy even before it has been enorced was not wise and whether the policy would be restrictive or not, can only be known until after it’s implemented.
Reporters Without Borders, on the other hand sent a letter to Twitter’s executive chairman, Jack Dorsey, urging for the scrapping of the policy with immediate effect. The organization advocates globally for press freedom.
The letter read, “By finally choosing to align itself with the censors, Twitter is depriving cyberdissidents in repressive countries of a crucial tool for information and organization. Twitter’s position that freedom of expression is interpreted differently from country to country is unacceptable.”
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