Twitter, the micro-blogging site, has undergone a remarkable transformation. Twitter’s CEO, Dick Costolo, introduced a new policy for the site to cope up with the local laws of different countries around the globe. Twitter is defensive for its tweet filtering policy and hopes it to be a progressive and forward looking approach and a means to comply with the local laws of each country.
According to this policy if a particular tweet is offensive in some countries, it won’t be published in those countries but would appear in other countries where it is not forbidden by law. Like, for example, the pro- Nazi sentiment can be provocative in France and Germany and hence tweets regarding this subject would not be displayed in France and Germany but will appear in the rest of the world.
Censorship
Recently, censorship emerged as a major concern in the media. The users are disapproving strongly the policy change of Twitter as supporting a regressive regime of law making bodies. Although Twitter is doing this proactively, it defends itself by saying that it has handled a very difficult matter very intelligently.
Some careful observers say that Twitter has accepted the proposal and lost to the war very easily rather it should have led the war against censorship.
In Twitter’s Defense
Twitter’s defenders say that there is never appropriate appreciation for it and other similar web based companies even if they work and perform the difficult task around the globe. For example, Google, in China, was asked to publish only censored information. Google tried to comply with China’s censorship restriction laws but it later on left the country and pulled out its business quoting it was not able to do what it is meant for- providing free information to people.
What Happens Behind the Scenes Remains Behind the Scenes
Twitter does not celebrate promoting censorship rules by some countries but there seems to be no other option with these businesses except to comply with the local laws of the country. Otherwise, the company will not be allowed to work in that country. And this will benefit none, neither the businesses nor the country.
It might be possible that Twitter tries to change the mindset of governments of different countries and also their censorship rules but it is very difficult to change government policies. Countries like China and Iran have shown their solidarity when it came to censorship. It is quite evident from the behavior of these countries that they want to ban all the foreign internet based companies.
But, all this fuss about Twitter’s policy to censor tweets is of no point. This is because in many of the countries Twitter is already banned. In countries where it is allowed, but censorship has taken place, then the best part is Twitter’s message that a tweet has been deleted. This is a better step taken and a forward step in the sense that before when a tweet was deleted there was no sign of its existence but now at least the reader will know that a post has been removed and can also to some extent decipher its meaning.
Our guest author, Alia Haley, is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology and luxury. Beside this she is fond of cell phones. These days she is busy in writing an article on Luxury yachts and Burberry Handbags.
