Censored Tweets
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 9:38AM | Written by: AlienCG Twitter wants to be available in all countries and for good reason. Having a worldwide user base is a necessity these days, but is it wise to conform to censorship laws in every country? This is, essentially, what Twitter is agreeing to do. Their blog post expresses that they will be able to delete tweets on a country-by-country basis depending on text.
It’s hard to believe that the web site whose name was emblazoned on the Arab Spring protests (Google search “Twitter Revolution”) would now like to prevent anything like that from happening again. There’s a lot more at stake says Mark Gibbs in Forbes Magazine, Twitter could easily be sued by numerous governments if the filter fails at any point. They are better off taking the hands-off approach and allowing the tyrants to be the bad guys when they shut off access to Twitter or the entire Internet.
For a whole lot more on this story, visit the Storify site. I will continue this conversation in the comments section and elsewhere on the Internet. I care what Twitter does to a point and that point is when somebody else comes in to take their place.
Twitter, censorship, links, policy in Technically Speaking 
Reader Comments (5)
I need to so some more reading about this. It doesn't make any sort of sense to me at all. Why would a service, whose whole point iw info on the fly, be willing to enter into an agreement like this? Deleting tweets on a country-by-country basis based on key words? They are asking for trouble from both ends!
I just don't get Twitter. The 140 character limit seems too crippling. Perhaps in a couple of years, a much better alternative will come along and kill it. One with a higher limit.
Like how myspace was all the rage 4 years ago and Facebook killed it.
Only now, with Facebook filled with Farmville spam, and how they broke the newsfeed and won't fix it, I'd love it if something better came along and killed Facebook.
dmarks: Twitter is about being able to communicate with an audience through SMS messaging which has a limit of 140-160 characters. It's useful when a specific topic is used (e.g.: the Green Revolution in Iran or the Arab Spring) and you want news or a link quickly. It's also, for the most part, a spam-free zone (yes, sponsored tweets are around, but an ad blocker is quite effective) where you only receive updates from people that you follow. I would like to see a hashtag/followed search where you can see related items from only those you follow.
On a country by country basis? So, if you were in certain countries like say, North Korea, 99.9% of the tweets would be deleted except the ones that praise the government? Fun times!
I don't have a Twitter account, but I hate censorship on almost any level.