Censorship in 140 Characters or Less

Well Twitter made an interesting announcement today, telling the world that in other countries, if asked, they will censor tweets. The request has to come from some type of authority, which I suppose could mean a verified account holder, government official, or...I don't know, the description is vague.

No wonder Google has been pissed at Twitter lately, they're being EVIL!!!

But are they really? I think there are definitely reasons to take either side. Now I know that freedom of speech is possibly our greatest American freedom and it is largely accepted worldwide as a human right. But, much to our lament, there are still some places that are not free to openly speak their minds, even in 140 characters.

The situation becomes one of global strategy versus localized adaptation. Is it better or more important for a company to keep their values without compromise, or do you adapt to the region you're operating in? It's a really tough call and can depend heavily on the country in question. In class, we often discuss Google's failure in China, which is really a parallel to Twitter's announcement. Google refused to give in to the Chinese government and censor their content and as a result, was essentially blocked from business. The power to their building was shut down randomly, their links often went to competitor Baidu, and eventually their accounts were hacked and used to arrest anti-government activists. In the end, Google pulled out of China and went about their various other pursuits.

Americans have a tendency to think our policies and beliefs are greater than that of other countries, which is why so many people think we're arrogant. We bring Americanism where ever we go and sometimes show it off without much tact. Twitter clearly wants to provide its services to others, but they know if they are to establish and maintain a global presence including regions with authoritarian rule, they have to play under house rules. If, like Google, they try to subvert the system and remain open, the situation could devolve into much worse than censorship, like arrests or hacking. We really don't even know how often this will come up. As far as I can tell, there aren't key words or people that are automatically blocked all the time, but rather specific requests have to be made. It may not be an issue.

But Twitter is definitely going to take some heat for this decision, when they're really only trying to do what's best for their service. It relies on network effect just like all social networks and they are only trying to expand the network. I think that when it comes to ethical issues like this one, the field is gray. Making the decision requires careful analysis and good judgement, and unfortunately I can't say whether or not Twitter went through the proper motions. I can understand the rationale though. This decision is interesting though when you consider the involvement of Twitter and Facebook in last years Arab Revolutions.

I'll be curious to see what happens with this decision in the future. How do you feel about this decision and the idea of complying with local customs? Let me know in the comments section below!