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Twitter’s Censorship Policy: Three Unanswered Questions
Jan 29th
In June of 2009, leading up to the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square uprising, the Chinese government blocked access by its citizens to Twitter, Flickr and a host of other US-based websites. Social media being already widespread throughout the country, perhaps the Chinese government feared the possibility of events like unfolded elsewhere 18 months later, in what became known as the Arab Spring.
Two and a half years later, Twitter remains blocked in China, though many people find ways to make us of it none the less. China isn’t the only country that’s related to Twitter’s announcement last week that the social network will now selectively censor messages country-by-country when it receives “a valid and properly scoped request from an authorized entity.” Debate went on throughout the last week about the policy, but I think there are at least three big questions that remain unanswered.
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Some have said that this is an unacceptable compromise by Twitter. World-renowned Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei says, on Twitter, “If Twitter censors, I’ll stop tweeting.”
“If Twitter censors, I’ll stop tweeting.” -Ai Weiwei
But many free speech advocates begrudgingly say that the company is doing everything it can to stay engaged in repressive countries where non-compliance with local censorship is not an option.
“I understand why people are angry, but this does not, in my view, represent a sea change in Twitter’s policies,” blogs Jillian C. York, Director of International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Twitter has previously taken down content-for DMCA requests, at least-and will no doubt continue to face requests in the future. I believe that the company is doing its best in a tough situation…and I’ll be the first to raise hell if they screw up.”
It’s interesting to see York say she’ll raise hell if the policy is misapplied and Ai Weiwei to say he’ll go silent on the network if the policy is applied at all.
Three questions in particular remain in my mind.
How Will This Censorship Be Used?
What kinds of content will be censored with this new capability? What will governments around the world demand be removed from the site? Will it be things like the identities of people involved in court cases, as the UK’s controversial Super Injunctions looked to ban on Twitter this Spring as has long been banned from newspapers? Would Twitter have co-operated with that kind of legal move if it was instructed to today?
“I believe that the company is doing its best in a tough situation…and I’ll be the first to raise hell if they screw up.” -Jillian C. York, EFF
As London-based Matt Brian pointed out at the time, enforcement of such legal prohibitions could be complicated by the abscence of Twitter business operations on British soil. Will that be a relevant matter in the future?
Or will Tweet-zapping be called for in places like Syria, where users rallied under the hashtag #RamadanMassacre in August, to bring global awareness to the brutality of the Syrian government they protested? If told to do so by a government massacring its citizens in the streets, will Twitter render all people in that country unable to see messages of protest on its network? Will shouting into such an eerie silence change the way such Tweeting campaigns also engage with the outside world? I would think so.
At what point would such demands no longer be interpreted by Twitter as being “a valid and properly scoped request from an authorized entity?” When the US State Department ruled a foreign government invalid, perhaps?
How Will Twitter Censorship Impact People Arrested for Their Tweets?
It is not unheard of for people around the world to be arrested for their Tweets. As Curt Hopkins reported on ReadWriteWeb in November, 2010:
Cheng Jianping has wound up in a Chinese ‘re-education camp’ with a record-breaking five words on Twitter. Mocking nationalistic vandalism that flared up around a Chinese-Japanese dispute over the ownership of uninhabited islands, she retweeted another’s message and added the ironic admonition, ‘Charge, angry youth!’
Middle Eastern Tweeters have been arrested for quips mocking their ruling royal families.
Will the governments in question issue a take-down order to Twitter on their way to knock down the doors of the Tweeters in question? Or will they not bother?
Will people be arrested for messages that no one else in their country can even see anymore? How Orwellian.
Will This Reduce Conspiracy Theories About Twitter Censorship? Should It?
What’s unique about Twitter’s position, some people say, is not the censorship but the transparency about it. One might hope that if every instance of censorship is openly and loudly announced by Twitter, that critics who have long suspected Twitter was censoring conversation about topics of great importance to them might be less inclined to be suspicious.
In recent months some have worried that Twitter was systematically de-emphasizing discussion about the Occupy protests. In 2010, some of the first wide-spread concerns about Twitter censorship arose when the Israeli army clashed with a flotilla seeking to deliver aid to Palestinians despite an embargo.
Charles Arthur of the Guardian told the story as follows:
The attack by Israel on a flotilla of ships approaching Gaza has, as you’d expect, generated a huge response on social media – and of course Twitter, with its real-time content, was quick to react.
Many users began the morning by tagging their comments about it with “#flotilla” – a “hashtag” which gives a structure to a discussion or emerging event, as you can filter searches in applications such as Tweetdeck so that you only see those with that tag.
But at around 11am, as #flotilla began “trending” – rising to the topmost-used hashtags on the service – it seemed to vanish.
Was this censorship by Twitter?
Twitter Headquarters investigated the communications event and found that there was another event, elsewhere in the world, that was using the hashtag #flotilla as well, at the same time. Twitter’s automated spam fighting software saw unrelated uses of the hashtag and zapped it from the Trending Topics list. Conspiracy resolved.
In all likelihood, critics will still suspect in many cases that Twitter is engaged in censorship even if the company doesn’t take the steps for transparency that they have pledged to take. No one but perhaps some of the very deep pockets who have invested in Twitter is really evil, though, (not the employees) and so now under the new policy, the simplest explanation of why some communication is less visible on the network than expected will likely never be covert censorship.
It’s a complicated situation, though. Much remains to be seen with regard to how the new “feature” will be used and what it will mean for people facing repression around the world. Twitter will no doubt face ongoing scrutiny for its practices, as all communication network infrastructure companies deserve.
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
4 questions to ask when hiring an SEO consultant – iMedia Connection
Jan 16th
 MarketingProfs.com (subscription) |
4 questions to ask when hiring an SEO consultant
iMedia Connection Hiring an SEO consultant is the perfect way to outsource this vital task, but how do you know who is the best resource for your company? There are a lot of SEO "experts" out there who use shady tactics to drive traffic. You don't want to invest your … Search plus: five changes you need to make to your SEO campaigns Three Ways to Enhance SEO With Twitter Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto: Writing The Blogs That Nobody Wants To |
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5 Questions To Streamline Your Keyword Research
Jan 10th
It’s time for the first meeting with the customer. You may be a seasoned search marketer, but you’re still a little nervous. How do you achieve that perfect balance of getting the information you need while still exuding an aura of consummate professionalism, knowledge, and generally make yourself…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Top Ten Questions to Ask to Avoid Getting Ripped Off With a Law Firm SEO Campaign – Newsome Law (blog)
Dec 10th
 Newsome Law (blog) |
Top Ten Questions to Ask to Avoid Getting Ripped Off With a Law Firm SEO Campaign
Newsome Law (blog) There are a host of experts and consultants who purport to sell SEO, or 'search engine optimization' to law firms. The pitch usually goes something like this: hire us for a fat monthly fee and we'll help you get to the first page of Google, Bing, … |
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Eric Ward Answers 10 Questions on BizDev Link Building
Dec 6th
Eric Ward is the godfather of link building (just ask Jeff Bezos, who hired Eric to help launch Amazon). I’ve been learning from him since I started in the SEO industry back in 2001, and continue learning from him to this day through his LinkMoses…
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Eric Ward Answers 10 Questions on BizDev Link Building – Search Engine Watch
Dec 6th
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Eric Ward Answers 10 Questions on BizDev Link Building
Search Engine Watch I've been learning from him since I started in the SEO industry back in 2001, and continue learning from him to this day through his LinkMoses Private Link Building Newsletter. Big thanks to Eric for helping continue the BizDev link building interview … 304 Link Building Opportunities |
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Beyond Facebook: 5 Questions to Ask Before Jumping into a New Social Network
Nov 28th
New social networks are popping up on a regular basis, and the fact that these specialized communities don’t have Facebook’s 800 million users doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t great places for brands to be. In many cases, brands are adopting n…
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
4 Questions with Rand Fishkin About Using SEOmoz Tools Effectlively
Nov 21st
A asked Rand Fiskin, CEO & Co-Founder of SEOmoz, some questions about the tools SEOmoz pro offers. There are a lot of tools to play with and I know sometimes you can start to love one and never really get engaged with the others. I asked Rand some questions about what we may be missing. [...]
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#pubcon Matt Cutts and Amit Singhal Answer Questions and Offer Advice
Nov 9th
Why is ranking data not available in Analytics?
Cutts: Over 96% of sites get all of their searches within the 1,000 limitation. The last 4% of sites would require 2-3 times more data storage.
Due to the Panda update, lower quality sites are outranking an authority site. Why?
Singhal: Google’s preference is always algorithmic – it is scalable across all sites, countries, and languages. Overall, the Panda update has been a very positive change – the scientific measurements say the Google user experience is better than it used to be. However, they understand that no algorithm is perfect and want people to submit reports of instances like this so they can improve the algorithm.
Cutts: Google is listening. Unfortunately, the changes take time to implement. They use the aggregated reports to try to improve the algorithm. The algorithm is under active development and they want to get it right.
When we search for appliances, why do we only get Sears and other major stores?
Cutts: The web is one of the only places where the small business can move faster than the big guys. The big companies are often big for reason and as a result they can outrank other pages. However, the search engine does give the small business a chance Google Webmaster Tools is somewhat of an equalizer though and small businesses should use this – i.e. big businesses are more likely to use text in images/flash and small businesses will know better. Also, small businesses should concentrate on the small niche.
Are they trying to make the algorithm so perfect that they are missing the user experience?
Singhal: All scientific measures and manual reviews indicate that the algorithm is getting better and that search quality is improving (improving search quality = more relevant, higher quality results).
Google Places Page that got shut down by competitor – is there a better process to stop this type of behavior?
Cutts: The web used to be the “wild west” and there is still a small element of this especially in local. The local area is changing fast and a combination of manual spam fighters and algorithmic changes will get this under control. They are open to ideas on how to prevent malicious deletions of other businesses. They are working on this.
Where is the balance between privacy and data with SSL encryption?
Cutts: The trend is search is becoming more personal and this should continue, which means this is important to Google. People are unhappy that they have lost some of their keyword data. However, if you download your data from Google Webmaster Tools, 96% of people can still see all of their keyword data. They will not back down on the SSL – if anything they may move forward and advertisers may not get the data in the future. People want to know that they are not being snooped on.
Are PRWeb and press releases considered black hat due to duplicate content?
Cutts: Press releases are going to other people and asking them to write about you. Instead, work hard to produce high quality content on your site and people will want to write about you. It is harder to fake natural than be natural.
Singhal: The content must be high-quality and useful from a reader’s perspective. If the content is high quality and you work hard for the users, it is OK.
If I do doorway pages will the whole site get penalized or just the doorway pages?
Cutts: Are you asking how to do doorway pages (incredulously)?!? There is an answer though – it depends on the amount of spam. If there is a huge amount of great content, they will probably only penalize the portion of the site that is using doorway pages. However, if
Singhal: Don’t do it man.
Everyone says I need more links. How do links improve the quality of the site? I don’t want to play this game and I don’t want to do this.
Cutts: What matters is bottom line. Links are a part of search – they represent online reputation. Although there are many tools that report links, none of the tools can tell you which links are trusted by Google (not even Google’s tools). While the link structure looks bad from the outside, the actual linkgraph that Google uses/trusts looks much better. When the New York Times complained about a site with 10,000 spammy links, Google investigated the site and not a single link had slipped through Google’s filter. Only the links Google trusts count.
Is Google going to give more data to webmasters?
Google can either give more data (i.e. 2000 queries instead of 1,000) or give a longer timeframe (i.e. 60 days). They are leaning toward more data – they figure people can just download data periodically and still have access to past data. In an informal survey of the audience they disagree – 60% want longer timeframe and 40% want more queries.
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