Twitter Censorship: 140 Character Messages Now Under Fire

Twitter will censor content across certain regions of the world, the company revealed today. Twitter censorship is not a new issue, as the micro-blog already censors what they term to be “illegal Tweets.”  However, selective Twitter censorship has just been confirmed by the official Twitter blog.  Already termed by the New York Times Bits Blog as “micro-censorship,” Twitter is joining the ranks of many international corporations by self-implementing censorship in certain countries.  In a blog post today, Twitter made a statement about the many “contours” to freedom of expression, as interpreted by different governments around the world. 

The blog entry ended with the words “The Tweets must continue to flow,” but which countries will start damming up with Twitter censorship is not yet known. 

An example of censored content, as provided by the official Twitter blog was pro-Nazi content, a big no-no in Germany and France.  But with the social media micro-blogger’s reputation of being a quick way to rally large groups of people, from the aborted Green Revolution to Occupy Wall Street, as well as being a go-to for citizen journalism, there may be other reasons for censorship.

For its part, Twitter has promised the utmost transparency in its actions.  They plan to leave a notice and a reason for every deleted Tweet.  At the same time, they promise that these disappeared Tweets will only be unavailable to countries that find them offensive, or have different viewpoints on freedom of speech. 

Continuing their partnership with Chilling Effects, a legal archive that specializes in online rights, Twitter will also maintain transparency through posting notices on a new page www.chillingeffects.org/twitter. 

How are micro-bloggers reacting?  Searching the keywords “Twitter censorship” gives a good indication of the reaction, and following the #censorship hashtag leaves a cascading series of results. 

User teddyrised notes: Twitter announces country-specific censorship... shortly after a Saudi prince invested heavily in the firm. Somebody say surprise?

Prince Walid bin Talal invested $300 million in the site last month.  He also has holdings in Apple, City Group, and Walt Disney.

Micro-blogger tapbot_paul (Paul Haddad) had a more pragmatic approach: Twitter's "censorship" is about as innocuous as possible and very easy to bypass. The alternative was likely Twitter being fully blocked.

Since this has been the announcement of imminent Twitter censorship, it isn’t clear yet which countries and circumstances will be involved, how well this censorship will be enforced, and what notices Twitter will leave behind in its wake.