Twitter, the microblogging website, says it has devised technology that can selectively censor or block “tweets” on a country-by-country basis.
The announcement comes when there are efforts worldwide to regulate social networking media. Twitter and other websites have till now strongly defended the right of people to post their views. Last year Twitter had emerged as a key platform for people to voice opinions during the “Arab Spring” protests.
“Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world. We have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why,” said Twitter.
The microblogging website said till now it hasn’t used this, “but if and when we’re required to withhold a tweet in a specific country, we will attempt to let the user know... and will clearly mark when the content has been withheld”.
Defending its policy, Twitter said as it grows across the world, it will enter countries with different ideas about freedom of expression.
“Some differ so much from our ideas that we’ll not be able to exist there. Others are similar but, for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content,” Twitter noted.