Friday, January 27, 2012

Twitter to censor tweets, sparks worry over freedom of expression








Article by Nina Mandell

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/money/twitter-announces-censor-tweets-activists-worried-article-1.1012804#commentpostform

The micro-blogging firm announced on the company blog Thursday that it plans to change its censorship policies to comply with different countries' regulations.

"As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression," the post read. "Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are similar, but for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi comment."

The move, while it could be disappointing for some revolutionaries, follows a similar policy to Google, The Associated Press pointed out — and could help Twitter expand from 100 million active users to more than 1 billion around the world.

"One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user's voice. We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent with users when we can't. The tweets must continue to flow," the company added.

On Twitter, users protested the move with a #dontcensor campaign.

1 comment:

  1. Freedom of speech/expression protects against government censorship not private censorship. Hate speech isn't protected.

    ReplyDelete