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Twitter Will Censor Certain Tweets In Certain Countries

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Re: Twitter Will Censor Certain Tweets In Certain Countries

#21

Post by mindslight »

Karunamon wrote: post #8
dustineichler wrote: post #3

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

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 c…

Option D: Google opens their Chinese office outside of PRC, and embraces circumvention technology.

This is the Internet, you don't have to open a physical office in every market. Censoring services for the whims of every government just dilutes your brand.

Re: Twitter Will Censor Certain Tweets In Certain Countries

#22

Post by libraryatnight »

Karunamon wrote: post #8
dustineichler wrote: post #3

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

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 c…

It's not really fair to say "any rational person would take option #1," as a rational person could also make the decision that they'd rather not be party to supporting censorship.

Re: Twitter Will Censor Certain Tweets In Certain Countries

#23

Post by nitrogen »

kevinpet wrote: post #6

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".

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

Re: Twitter Will Censor Certain Tweets In Certain Countries

#24

Post by [deleted] »

Karunamon wrote: post #12
ppod wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see your point, but it's a little simplistic. By opening and complying with the law you are to a certain extent validating or condoning that law. By agreeing to abide by China's rules Google to some extent takes pressure off the Chinese government.

>By agreeing to abide by China's rules Google to some extent takes pressure off the Chinese government. How do you figure that? A search engine company in the united states probably isn't in the best position to be dictating foreign policy. Any "pressure" they could exert (on China, especially) by saying "We're staying away due to your crappy laws" is minimal at best. Besides, they already left due to (ostensibly) go…

[deleted]

Re: Twitter Will Censor Certain Tweets In Certain Countries

#25

Post by nextparadigms »

Karunamon wrote: post #8
dustineichler wrote: post #3

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

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 c…

It would've helped if Google convinced other companies to join them if they don't lower their censorship requests.

Re: Twitter Will Censor Certain Tweets In Certain Countries

#26

Post by 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.

Re: Twitter Will Censor Certain Tweets In Certain Countries

#27

Post by alain94040 »

simonw wrote: post #26

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…

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.

Re: Twitter Will Censor Certain Tweets In Certain Countries

#28

Post by SamReidHughes »

alain94040 wrote: post #27
simonw wrote: post #26

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…

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.

It is when they do it because of German government coercion. So it is.

Re: Twitter Will Censor Certain Tweets In Certain Countries

#29

Post by simonw »

alain94040 wrote: post #27
simonw wrote: post #26

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…

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.

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.

Re: Twitter Will Censor Certain Tweets In Certain Countries

#30

Post by beseku »

simonw wrote: post #29
alain94040 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

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?

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