Social media's tectonic plates are shifting, and the ripples are foreboding.
Facebook’s mandatory Timeline, Google+‘s new privacy policy, and now Twitter, which startled its loyal users and observers with a blog post on Thursday titled “Tweets Still Must Flow.”
“Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world.”
Forbes.com contributor Mark Gibbs says for Twitter to capitulate to governments with selective censorship would undermine its role as a vehicle for public discourse.
Gibbs commented, “With those words earlier today…the management of Twitter‘s went over to the dark side and may well have dug their own grave.”
As Twitter's video (below) featuring Egyptian activist Wael Ghonim indicates, the site aims to offer a platform for social change. So why the desire now to "reactively withhold" content from a country's citizens?
The impetus, they say, is to manage comments about politics, diverse governments and cultures that can be instantly incendiary or offensive.
As examples of countries where tweets may have to be restricted, Twitter mentioned Germany and France where pro-Nazi content is banned, and without compliance, they could not operate at all.
"We hold freedom of expression in high esteem and work hard not to remove Tweets," Twitter spokeswoman Jodi Olson wrote in an e-mail to CNN. "And just to be clear, this is not a change in philosophy and there are still countries to which we will not go.”
Twitter’s blog continues: “As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Until now, the only way we could take account of those countries’ limits was to remove content globally. Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world. We have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why.”
In response, the hashtags #TwitterBlackout and #TwitterCensored, many in Arabic, have surfaced to protest (including boycotting the platform on Saturday, Jan. 28) the move.
Demand Progress has asked Twitter to maintain its position “as an open platform… demonstrated time and again this year. We need you to keep fighting for and enabling freedom of expression — not rationalize away totalitarianism as a legitimate "different idea".
Twitter continues: “We haven’t yet used this ability, but if and when we are required to withhold a Tweet in a specific country, we will attempt to let the user know, and we will clearly mark when the content has been withheld. As part of that transparency, we’ve expanded our partnership with Chilling Effects to share this new page, which makes it easier to find notices related to Twitter.”
Chilling indeed. A joint project with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and several universities, Chilling Effects posts all takedown notices from copyright holders or from foreign governments.
What price political exigency for business as usual? To be sure, Twitter already censors tweets, here and abroad, abiding by the Digital Millennium Copyright act. But now, what happens when the next Arab Spring-like revolution occurs and a government declares tweeting illegal?
“You can’t service all of humanity if you allow the needs of politics to triumph over the needs of the people. And if you can’t service all of humanity, what is your relevance?” asks Gibbs.
Is Twitter eroding its brand promise and trust with users by this move? Let us know what you think. Post a comment below or tweet us at @brandchannelhub.
[image via Twitter/@aromaihi]
Below: Twitter's tongue in cheek recruitment video released today —
| Privacy Policy | About Us | Contact Us | FAQ 
