
Twitter Will Censor Certain Tweets In Certain Countries - Anon84
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/twitter_will_censor_certain_tweets_in_certain_coun.php
======
simonw
I'm going to guess this is more about Germany than it is about China

In Germany, Nazi propaganda is illegal. This leaves Twitter with three options
when dealing with a user who posts Nazi propaganda:

1\. Leave it up, in violation of German law. 2\. Delete the user's tweet, even
though it is legal in most countries (and blocking it is a violation of the
principle of free speech) 3\. Block it only in Germany, and make it clear that
it has been blocked.

Personally I think 3 is the least-bad option, though obviously others may
disagree.

~~~
alain94040
Blocking those tweets is _not_ a violation of the principle of free speech. At
least not in the legal sense. Private people and companies suppress speech all
the time and that's fine. It's when your government does it that it's very
wrong.

~~~
simonw
It's a violation in the moral sense, depending of course in your morals.
Twitter's image involves the protection if free speech, so it's problematic
for them.

~~~
beseku
It's only a violation in so far as its less of a violation to a persons free
speech than blocking the whole service.

Users can be creative with what they want to express with this approach - with
no Twitter at all, where is the wiggle room?

~~~
rooshdi
Yes, but censorship is a slippery slope to silence and government abuse.
Eventually Twitter and/or the People will need to make a stand against tyranny
if they feel human rights and free speech are being overly obstructed.

------
sschueller
That is what happens when a Saudi Prince invests $300m in a tool that could
bring an unwanted uprising in his country.
[http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/saudi-prince-
invests-...](http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/saudi-prince-
invests-300-million-in-twitter/)

------
droithomme
A useful new web service to complement this would be a site to determine which
tweets are censored in which countries and publicly log them for convenient
searching and analysis.

~~~
x5315
Twitter reports this information to <http://www.chillingeffects.org/>. I think
this is what you're describing.

~~~
Maxious
The low bar for tweets to be taken down can be seen on their database already:

simply mentioning that TPB can be used to download movies:
[http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512c/notice.cgi?NoticeID=...](http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512c/notice.cgi?NoticeID=196738)

claiming someone used your copyrighted photo as an avatar:
[http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512c/notice.cgi?NoticeID=...](http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512c/notice.cgi?NoticeID=185325)

~~~
icebraining
_We have contacted piratebay.com as well._

Yeah, good luck with that. <https://thepiratebay.org/legal>

------
dantheman
Here's the new API for withheld content:

    
    
      "text": "@chatty's account is withheld in: Greece, Hong Kong, Malaysia,.",
      "withheld_scope": "user",
      "withheld_in_countries": "GR, HK, MY",
    

[https://dev.twitter.com/blog/new-withheld-content-fields-
api...](https://dev.twitter.com/blog/new-withheld-content-fields-api-
responses)

------
slig
They can't even block the most idiotic kind of spam[1], and now they will get
this magic NLP working? Ha.

[1] @reply tweets from newly created accounts.

~~~
snikolov
I don't follow. Could you point to where it mentioned NLP in the article?

~~~
slig
It's not on the article, I implied it because I thought they were going to
censor content automatically.

~~~
x5315
It's not an automatic censoring. The country sends a request to Twitter.

------
nextparadigms
So does this mean they'll only censor them in a certain country when that
country's government asks them to do it, or also when the US Government asks
them to censor them in that country?

~~~
x5315
A country can only ask Twitter to censor the information in that country. For
example, if Germany doesn't want the German people see pro-Nazi content, they
can ask Twitter to censor it in that country. Twitter will then report it in
to <http://www.chillingeffects.org/>.

~~~
rmc
The German government doesn't have to ask twitter. Twitter would be breaking
the law in Germany to publish it. It's not a request.

------
cft
Note how twitter did not do anything as a SOPA protest, unlike Google or
Wikipedia. They are a (any) government-aligned company, and they probably
enjoy unusually close ties with FBI and CIA (their role in the Arab Spring
would ensure that for example).

------
laconian
Seems like a shortsighted move, given the perception in developed Western
countries that Twitter is a tool for fomenting freedom.

~~~
bilbo0s
I think many of these companies are looking at the very real possibility that
being relegated to being a 'Western Country Company' may not be the best
financial strategy long term.

That said...Twitter is too late. I don't think many Chinese young people will
switch at this point. They have already missed the boat on micro blogging in
China, they should at least keep their ideals...now they will keep their
ideals and won't get the Chinese market anyway.

Although when I consider the matter more fully...the world is bigger than
China. Some of those other nations may be important markets going
forward...and they may have some censorship laws Twitter would have to deal
with. Indonesia will probably be the second most important nation in Asia in
the future, and I think Twitter hasn't lost yet in places like that. And
Indonesia probably has things you can and cannot say.

------
kevinpet
What they need to do is identify all flagged tweets to everyone, either with a
"this tweet was blocked by censors in your country" or with a "this tweet is
blocked for users in Iran at the request of censors".

~~~
nitrogen
According to the link from this post by dantheman[0], the Twitter API will
make this data available.

[0] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3516483>

------
dustineichler
This is weird. Freedom shouldn't be the price you pay to operate in any
country. Is it passe to push American ideals abroad.

~~~
Karunamon
No, but when it comes down to "Censor stuff when asked" or "Don't bother
setting up shop at all", any rational person would take option #1.

So let's see, you're Google, and you want to set up your search engine in
China.

"Not so fast" says the local big cheeses. "You have to censor search results
in compliance with laws X Y and Z. If you do not, your employees will be
jailed and you will be shut down."

As a Chinese citizen, which is the best result?

Let's do a very simple payoff matrix.

Outcome A: Google avoids China altogether

Outcome B: Google opens in China and complies with the law

Outcome C: Google opens in China and does not comply with the law

    
    
          Google     Chinese Citizen
     A      0               0
     B      1               1
     C      -1              0
    

Only option B leaves all parties better than they started out.

~~~
_delirium
But in actuality Google decided B was a mistake, and has switched to A:
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/mar/23/google-
chin...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/mar/23/google-china-
censorship-hong-kong)

~~~
felipe
Actually Google decided A was a mistake, and has switched to C:
[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-24/google-china-
busine...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-24/google-china-business-
grows-continues-to-thrive-alegre-says.html)

------
furyg3
So they will publish the tweets they censor, eh? Idea:

1\. Check the list. Get @username and text of censored tweet.

2\. Mirror the tweet.

3\. Lookup followers of @username

4\. Send followers a tweet with link to censored tweet of the @user.

This will start an arms race. Twitter will censor all tweets which link to
websites in (2), and start censoring all tweets from users who do (4).
Solution:

2\. Make Wordpress plugin which mirrors censored list on people's blog.
Encourage wordpress users to install this plugin.

4\. Encourage twitter users to authorize you to use their accounts to retweet
links to censored tweets.

Thoughts?

------
SHIFTHAPPENZ
The fact that law depends on which position on this planet you stay is
ridiculous.

I vote that every single law is trashed and new laws are written completely
from scratch. Based on universial human rights. Without discriminating anyone
without a valid reason (e.g. the person is not aware of risks causing by this
or that action)

------
tlogan
Maybe there were some strings attached to $300m investment by Saudis

