Twitter gonna screw ordinary folks just like "Bad Apple"
In 2009, Twitter inspired protesters in Moldova to demand political power. In 2010, the microblogging service channeled food, medical supplies and hope to the desperate victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Last year, that little blue bird did no less than foment revolution across the Arab world while uniting Americans against corporate greed and inequality.
And this year? Twitter’s helping France and Turkey clamp down on free speech without inconveniencing users in other countries.
That’s the thrust of the company’s announcement Thursday that it will accommodate “countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression” by selectively blocking tweets at their request. While Twitter could always delete tweets if it needed to, now it can and will censor them on a country-by-country basis to comply with national laws such as the bans on pro-Nazi speech in Germany and France.
That’s the example Twitter offered, and it’s a pretty convenient one. Who’s going to side with the Nazis? But there are plenty of other, less-palatable laws Twitter is now in a position to enforce, like Thailand’s ban on anything deemed insulting to the king, or Turkey’s similar prohibition on defaming its national founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Speaking of Turkey, it outlaws any discussion of the Armenian genocide, while France just passed a bill making it a crime to deny the genocide happened. So now Twitter can, in theory, be asked to observe both laws.
Absurd, yes, but hardly unprecedented. Google already blocks search results and other content in a number of countries around the globe for similar reasons. But it’s different when it’s Twitter. Google only promises not to be evil (and some critics say it’s now failing to clear even that low bar.) Twitter’s devotees have built it up into something much more exalted: a force for global progress and human enlightenment. Anyone who bought into that narrative can’t help but feel disappointed and betrayed.
Of course, it was never fully true, but that didn’t stop Twitter’s leaders from stoking the myth. In a blog post published a year ago headlined “The Tweets Must Flow,” they proclaimed, “We don’t always agree with the things people choose to tweet, but we keep the information flowing irrespective of any view we may have about the content.”
That post was signed by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and Alex Macgillivray, the company’s general counsel. The one published yesterday announcing the policy change was unsigned. That tells you pretty much everything you need to know.
Backlash After Twitter Says May Censor Messages By Country
Friday, January 27th, 2012
Popular microblogging service Twitter is facing criticism after announcing it now has the ability to censor posts, or “tweets,” on a country-by-country basis.
Media rights group Reporters Without Borders on Friday sent a letter to the company expressing what it called its “deep concern.” The organization's Washington director, Delphine Halgand , says the new policy violates freedom of expression.
“Twitter could delete some tweets or block some tweets or accounts according to the criteria of different governments. So and, it's like, freedom of expression doesn't depend on criteria of government. This is a fundamental principle which is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
Halgand says people in countries experiencing anti-government movements and aspirations for democracy could suffer the most.
“We saw that during the Arab Spring and during the uprising and the crackdowns, Twitter was playing a huge role, and if now, the government will be able to just call Twitter to say, 'Hey, can you just block this cyberdissident's account,' can you imagine how the uprising could have been different, if [that] was the case?”
Twitter users also expressed concern, with some vowing to take part Saturday in what they called a Twitter Blackout — no tweeting for a day.
The U.S.-based company announced on its blog this week that it has not yet used the removal ability, but that if it does, a notice will appear for the user saying a Twitter message has been withheld to comply with the law of the country where the user is operating.
Previously, any content Twitter deleted would be erased worldwide. Twitter says with its new method, a tweet restricted in a specific country still will be available to the rest of the world.
The approach is in stark contrast with a statement Twitter made a year ago called “The Tweets Must Flow,” promising not to censor Twitter messages as they helped foment anti-government movements in a number of Middle Eastern countries.
In its latest announcement, Twitter said as it grows internationally, it is entering countries that have different ideas about the limits of freedom of expression. It said the laws are such that it cannot exist in some countries at all, while other nations are similar to the U.S. but restrict certain topics. It gave the examples of France and Germany, where pro-Nazi speech is banned.
While Twitter did not list other nations specifically, another example could be Thailand, where it is illegal to speak ill of the monarchy. Twitter does not operate in some countries that strictly control media content, such as China. In its letter, Reporters Without Borders questioned whether Twitter's decision to enable country-by-country blocking was motivated by the desire to penetrate the Chinese market.
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