Twitter's censor move with eye on China?

fonte: The Times of India


NEW DELHI: Twitter, a hugely popular social networking site for microblogging, has said that "if required by the law" it can block tweets in a particular country. In a post titled 'Tweets Must Still Flow', Twitter, which has around 300 million users, wrote on its official blog, "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."

In the wake of the government's recent run-in with internet sites like Google, Yahoo! and Facebook over certain user-generated content, this was interpreted by many as Twitter's accommodation of a rising concern of several governments on the need to regulate user-generated content on social networking sites, and seen to be contrasting with the "stubborn" stand of Google and Facebook.

However, some experts wonder if Twitter's position was really different from that of Google or Facebook. "Google and Facebook have said that they would remove content if ordered by the courts, and Twitter too is saying that it can block tweets if required by the law," said an expert. "Where laws are codified, as in Germany and France about pro-Nazi propaganda, Twitter can block pro-Nazi tweets proactively. But in countries like India, where the laws are not that specific, this will be done reactively on the basis of court orders. That's all Twitter is saying."

In its blog post, Twitter said it has added the feature to block content depending on the region because it will enter "countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression." It cited the example of Germany and France: "Some countries differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content."

Twitter claimed if "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." It will also post detailed information about blocked content on the website of Chilling Effects, a joint project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and law departments of several leading US universities.

However, the move is most likely prompted by Twitter's alleged plan to enter China, a country with the highest number of internet users. The service is banned in the Asian country since 2009. With its new technology it might be able to block tweets that Chinese government deems offensive without raising the hackles of its global audience.

Twitter said that so far it has not used its new technology. "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," the company said.

Pranesh Prakash, a senior official with the Centre for Internet and Society, termed the move a step towards the "Balkanization of the web". "The region-specific blocking was already being used on video hosting websites like Youtube and Hulu, where due to the wishes of copyright owners many videos are not available in India. Twitter is extending this technology to its tweets," he said.

As governments seek some regulation of the web, the demand for region-specific content filtering and blocking has grown. Last month, asking Google and Facebook to filter "offensive material", telecom minister Kapil Sibal said, "We have to take care of the sensibilities of our people. Cultural ethos is very important to us."

Twitter became a household name in India last year as thousands of protesters used it to spread word about Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement. In countries like Egypt and Tunisia, it was used by protesters in their fight against oppressive regimes. Prakash added that in the past the website had resisted attempts to censor tweets. "Last year when the US government sought detailed information about a user, Twitter challenged them in a court," he said.