Twitter CEO Dick Costolo recently took the stage at the AllThingsD media conference held California on Monday to defend the company’s new censorship policies.
Last week, the social networking site announced that it would begin to censor tweets and/or users in specific countries to comply with local laws. In addition to extensive media coverage, the decision sparked outrage among many Twitter users, who gathered under the hashtag #TwitterBlackout and pledged to boycott the service on 28 January.
However, as Costolo stood by the new policy, he argued that the policy would allow for greater freedom of speech among users on the platform rather than inhibit it. Previously, when a government demanded that Twitter remove a tweet or block a user for an offensive or illegal comment, access to that content would be blocked from the entire world. Now, Twitter can simply hide the tweet or user from that specific country only while allowing it to be available for all other users.
“œThere‘s been no change in our stance or attitude or policy with respect to content on Twitter,“ Costolo said. “œWhat we announced is a greater capability we now have. Now, when we are issued a valid legal order in a country in which we operate, such as a DMCA takedown notice, we are able to leave the content up for as many people around the world as possible, while still operating within the local law. You can‘t operate in these countries and choose the laws you want to abide by.“
Twitter has been very clear about this policy only being about different locations’ interpretation of freedom of expression and not a way to arrest the freedom of information flow. “œWe want to run Twitter as transparently as possible,“ Costolo added. “This is the actual thoughtful and honest approach to doing this.“
Source: Mashable
