Twitter Censorship Now Country-Specific

[tmande2nd]

"You know, there are some words I've known since I was a schoolboy: ' With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably. -Captain Picard. TNG Drumhead.

I wont be silent when someone in the government tells me to.
More and more I truly wonder if we even live in a democracy anymore.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Hey Google! Remember how you pulled out of China because you were sick of letting them tell you what to do? And how you put all that effort into protesting SOPA and PIPA because they could have similar effects on how you do business here?

Well, you know how you're trying to figure out how to compete with Twitter but can't think of anything to offer people that Twitter doesn't?

They just handed you the answer on a silver platter.

 

[Frizzle]

"You know, there are some words I've known since I was a schoolboy: ' With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably. -Captain Picard. TNG Drumhead.

I wont be silent when someone in the government tells me to.
More and more I truly wonder if we even live in a democracy anymore.

Technically it's a Democratic Republic. I think the only true democratic things we have left are our local governments. If we lived in a democracy then SOPA would never have been introduce, we wouldn't start a war every year that takes 5x as long to fight, and we wouldn't have to wait in the lobby of airports to greet people that fly to see us.

Only actual democracy that I think is in existence is Iceland. And I'm not actually sure if they still have it.

 

[NiPah]

I think a new business venture just opened up, providing an uncensored twitter like program marketing primarily to countries with stringent censorship laws like China, Iran, and the US. Lets start looking for investors!

 

[Jordi]

It always depresses me to see what I thought were civilized countries fail so miserably at even the simplest aspects of freedom.

Last year, British Prime Minister, David Cameron, threatened to ban the service in the UK, after reports that rioters were using Twitter to organize riots.

Seriously, David Cameron, what the fucking fuck!? You know what else is used to organize riots? Every other communication medium you can think of. Are you also going to ban phones, text messages, e-mail, message boards, Facebook, etc.? Hell, if you monitor Twitter and people use it to organize illegal activities, they're even notifying you of that in advance and you'll have evidence of their involvement after.

The blog post announcing the policy change used France and Germany's ban on pro-Nazi content as one example of content that may be withheld. However, critics claim the policy could be used to enforce less acceptable forms of censorship.

This is not an acceptable form of censorship at all. Even idiots are entitled to communicate their dumb ass ideas. How is this more acceptable than China's censorship? Perhaps China thinks the people they're censoring are just as wrong as we think Nazis are.

 

[imnot]

Be funny if they just used it to block those bloody #BIEBERWELOVEUSOMUCH topics.

All seriousness though censoring twitter if retarded and I hope the people who decided it was a good idea get eaten by snakes.

 

[Neonit]

see, everytime someone gets a good idea, some other guy will come and say "hey, you do that - youll earn more money."
then, bad stuff happens.

 

[renegade7]

I think a new business venture just opened up, providing an
uncensored twitter like program marketing primarily to countries with stringent censorship laws like China, Iran, and the US. Lets start looking for investors!

I like this idea.

 

[JediMB]

People need to keep in mind that this censorship is, sadly, a necessary evil in order to avoid the site being completely blocked by these less than trustworthy governments.

If nothing else, it will be easier for Twitter-readers affected by censorship to bypass that than it would have been to bypass the site in its entirety being filtered out.

 

[MrStab]

Seventy years, isn't it?

It's scary how close we're coming to this shit happens again.

 

[Tiger Sora]

If none of you guys have seen the techies on the news talking about this. Theres a super simple work around. All you need to do is change the country your in, and BAM you can see anything.

Ya the whole idea of it, censorship is bad, and what this could lead to. But for now...... it being EASILY worked around, I see no problem. They get into China, everyone had to click afew buttons, problem solved, were all happy.

 

[Sporky111]

Oh please, blaming Twitter for riots and rebellion is like blaming the phones people use. It's just censorship, plain and simple. There's no justification. If pro-Nazi material is banned in France and Germany, why isn't it the responsibility of their LAW ENFORCEMENT to watch over this?

 

[Strazdas]

If your people are rioting then you fix your country, not censor your Twitter.

This.
This smells like what didnt suceed on the big scele is now being done on the small scale.

 

[Doitpow]

You know what, fuck it. I'm done.

I'm done being pissed off about all these people in power trying to censor the internet. I just don't have the energy for it and to be perfectly honest it looks like it's going to happen whether we fight it or not. We're not getting through to them, and we never will. They may back down but they're convinced they're in the right.

They have the money and the resources to do whatever the hell they want, regardless of how much we protest. I mean ffs, they've already proven the democratic process can be circumvented by simply taking their agenda to the UN, where the voice of the people does not exist. How are we supposed to fight that? We can't, it's as simple as that.

If anonymous has proven anything it's that a bunch of 12 year old /b/tards can shut down the department of justice. On the internet you are not restricted by wealth or politics, but skill, and there are always people more skillful than censors.

 

[DiMono]

People need to learn about things before they post about them. Yes I recognize the irony in me saying that after my most recent thread. Twitter would only remove tweets in countries if requested to by the government, and then all requests would be subject to an evaluation by Twitter as to whether they actually break the law Twitter has been told it violates. It's this, or have Twitter be unavailable in those countries entirely.

Read this [http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/twitter-blackout-a-protest-born-of-ignorance-but-questions-remain/] all the way through, and then realize this is no big deal.

 

[LetalisK]

People need to learn about things before they post about them. Yes I recognize the irony in me saying that after my most recent thread. Twitter would only remove tweets in countries if requested to by the government, and then all requests would be subject to an evaluation by Twitter as to whether they actually break the law Twitter has been told it violates. It's this, or have Twitter be unavailable in those countries entirely.

Read this [http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/twitter-blackout-a-protest-born-of-ignorance-but-questions-remain/] all the way through, and then realize this is no big deal.

Oh jesus christ, thank god. I thought I was the only one that actually read the article and knew what was going on. (Disclaimer: the following rant has excessive use of bold)

What the fuck is wrong with people on the internet? This policy has LESS censorship than Twitter's former policy. Under the previous policy, if something put on Twitter was illegal in any area it would be removed FOR EVERYONE. Under the new policy, the illegal tweet will be removed ONLY for those in areas where it is illegal. Plus, any requests to have a tweet removed will be PUBLICIZED! This is the fucking opposite of censorship! They're trying to make it so FEWER overall tweets are censored and any requests for censorship are out in the open.

But no. It would take far too much effort to actually do any kind of research on the matter, let alone READ THE FUCKING OP IN ITS ENTIRETY instead of just shooting our wads at the sight of the headline. Let's just keep our heads in the sand(whoops, sorry, I meant in our asses) and keep bitching and moaning about absolutely nothing.

If the internet goes down the shitter and severe regulations actually do come into place, it's our own damn fault for doing this retarded chicken little dance every time "internet" and "regulation" are in the same sentence and no one ends up taking us seriously when its on a matter that's actually important.

 

[CapitalistPig]

I really have no problem with this. The company should respect other countries. We here in The U.S experience a wealth of freedom that other countries are not allowed to experience. But that is not because of the companies we host it is because we have a bill of rights guaranteeing free speech. Hopefully issues like this will make other countries question the rights they are allowed and follow on them but it is not for individual companies to decide it is for the people. Personally I don't use twitter. To me it seems like........dare I say it? A forum moderator?