Twitter announced this week amid a media storm that it has given itself the right to censor and withhold tweets and content in certain countries, in a blog post on Thursday 26th January.

The post, entitled “Tweets must still flow” harks back to a post a year ago, “Tweets must Flow”, in which the company stated “The open exchange of information can have a positive global impact … almost every country in the world agrees that freedom of expression is a human right. Many countries also agree that freedom of expression carries with it responsibilities and has limits.”

The updated version evolves the open exchange of information and the way it will now be treated on Twitter. By dealing with the limits that some countries have with the freedom of expression in a new and transparent way, Twitter aim to “give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world” (via Twitter).

Head of New Media at Reporters with Borders (RSF),  Lucie Morillon said they are  ”very concerned” but  trying to “grasp the extent” of the consequences (via journalism.co.uk). “Clearly if Twitter is ready to abide by repressive countries then there are real consequences for journalists, bloggers … It’s not only about cyberdissidents from Syria getting information out, but about journalists being able to get information and help circulate it. Then the chain of information is broken.” RSF is currently preparing an open letter to Twitter CEO Dick Costolo to pose their questions and highlight fears.

Tim Worstall gives an argument for the move on Forbes.com, adding “This little change that Twitter has made to the way that it censors tweets tells us something really quite important about the way that international and national law affects what we do here on the internet.”  The crucial part of the process is that “we are covered by the law of whatever jurisdiction the material is read in” thus explaining that Twitter is allowing censorship of the countries where certain tweets would be read.

The transparency offered by Twitter in the controversial statement is that users will be notified of the censorship, and Twitter have also set up an area on Chilling Effects, a site which deals with Cease and Desist notices on the web.

Twitter add that “We haven’t yet used this ability, 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.” So the action has not yet been taken, but in a week when SOPA and PIPA have taken the lead in the headlines this new announcement for the future of social media calls free speech into question.

How do you feel about twitter being censored? How could this affect how you use it? Is freedom of speech under threat on the net?

Jo Gifford