Censorship on Twitter

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Censorship on Twitter involves the various instances of information blockage that occur on the social media service Twitter. Censorship on Twitter includes the censorship of individual people and specific terms as well as censorship dictated by governing bodies. Censorship on Twitter has come up in recent conversations as an attack on the freedom of speech, while others argue that the product of this action is the protection of said freedom. The decision to suspend individuals or the service as a whole can be made on a multitude of grounds, and has historically been a controversial topic.

History

Jack Dorsey, original CEO of Twitter. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63527893
In 2004, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass founded a podcast service called Odeo. When Apple announced in the following year that they'd be adding podcasts to their own service "iTunes", the leaders of Odeo decided to take the company in a new direction to avoid possible competition. Jack Dorsey, an engineer at Odeo, offered his idea of a service in which users would share short (280 words or less) messages, or tweets, with others. They decided on the name Twttr, and the first tweet was sent on March 21st of 2006.[1]


Upon its official debut in July of 2006, the service experienced a renaming to Twitter. The future prospect of this service pushed Williams, Stone, and Dorsey to buy out Odeo and begin a new company called Obvious Corp., in which they planned to further develop the social media network. In March of 2007, Twitter was presented at the South by Southwest music and technology conference, earning a large increase in interest for the service. Twitter, Inc. was created as its own company in April of the same year, and Dorsey became the chief executive officer (CEO) of the company. This position only lasted for a year, as Williams removed him from the position in 2008 and took over the role himself in 2010.[1]

Twitter made a large impact as a tool for journalists quickly after its debut, as it was a simple way for people of any background or belief to post about new-worthy events impacting them. One such event that benefited from this service was the Iranian presidential election in June of 2009, in which protests overtook the service and showcased the ability to bypass government censorship through a social media website.[1]

In October of 2012, six years after its initial debut, Twitter censored the first account of many. This account, which was deemed controversial, was run by neo-Nazis. This ban was only effective in one country: Germany. The account in question partook in the spreading of racist and hateful material, as well as sent abusive video messages and threatened violence against immigrants. Twitter came to a conclusion involving censorship after being pressed to by local law enforcement.[2]

The policy that gave Twitter the power to perform this censorship came in January of the same year and was officially sent out as a blog post titled "Tweets still must flow". In the opening quote of the post, Twitter references a previous blog post that 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."[3] The post goes on to explain their new ability to restrict content in a country that may have stricter freedom of speech laws, or ones that censor content due to historical or cultural events, while still having the content available for the rest of the world to access. Before an update that was added the following day, this blog post ends with a summary of the company's core values, which explains that they wish to defend and respect everyone's voice as well as maintain the flow of content as much as possible.[3]

Elon Musk

Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/08/biden-billionaire-minimum-tax-elon-musk.html

In October of 2022, Elon Musk purchased the social media service Twitter for 44 billion dollars. Following the purchase, Musk made several promises, including a plan to make the service more profitable.[4]

The deal cost Musk 44 billion dollars, and it came after months of legal trouble. An initial deal was struck in April of 2022 to acquire the company, though this deal fell apart quickly due to Musk being misled about the amount of spam accounts the platform had. This was followed by a lawsuit, and Musk was convinced to go through with the purchase in order to avoid a legal battle with the service. The new owner immediately got to work on company-wide changes, one such change being the dismissal of four top executives.[5]

The journey towards this investment began in April of the same year, when Elon Musk announced he had a 9% stake in the company, making him Twitter's largest shareholder. Despite an offer to join the board of directors, Musk continued to only have a shareholder role in the company. During the following week, Musk made a bid to acquire the company based on a per-share value. This offer was accepted, though Musk decided to place a pause on the acquisition in response to external factors. In mid-May, Musk tweeted that the mass of spam accounts on the platform had given him second thoughts, which lead to lawsuits from both Twitter and Elon Musk. To avoid an official trial, Musk agreed to buy Twitter for the original bid of 44 million dollars. Musk, who also owns companies such as SpaceX and Tesla, added the name "Chief Twit" to his Twitter bio page following this acquisition. When speaking of his plans for the service, he included vows such as loosening rules against harassment and misleading claims as well as taking the company private, effectively redoing the majority of Twitter's pre-existing business model.[5]

Recent Events

On February 8th of 2023, Twitter users began to report error messages they were receiving from the application. These messages included errors such as "You are over the daily limit for sending Tweets", which left users curious as to why they were being limited on this previously unregulated ability. Later this same day, the bug seemed to be fixed.[6]

Policy

"The Twitter Rules" can be found in the general section of the help center on Twitter's website. The initial paragraph on this page states that their purpose is to "serve the public conversation," then going on to explain the guidelines put into place to allow everyone an equal opportunity to engage in said conversation.[7] Under the heading titled "Safety", a list of prohibited topics is given. This list includes: violence, terrorism/violent extremism, child sexual exploitation, abuse/harassment, hateful conduct, perpetrators of violent attacks, suicide or self-harm, sensitive media, and illegal or regulated goods and services. The webpage goes on to also prohibit the publishing of private information, non-consensual nudity, spam, civic integrity, misleading or deceptive identities, manipulated media, and anything that violates a copyright or trademark.[7]

Following a link at the bottom of this page labeled "our approach to enforcement" leads the user to a page detailing the steps taken to reach this policy as well as how it is enforced. Twitter goes on to explain that context matters, and the level of action to a policy infraction takes this into consideration. Contextual topics they use in this process include: who the behavior is directed at, the filer of the infraction, whether or not the user has a history of breaking the policy, the severity of the infraction, and if the content could be a legitimate topic of public interest.[8] The webpage continues with these topics, detailing the exact meaning of each one.

Banned Users

Donald Trump

On January 8th, 2021, Twitter published a blog post titled "Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump". In this post, the company begins with their official decision to permanently suspend the account of former U.S. President Donald Trump. Their explanation begins vague, stating that it is due to "how they [his tweets] are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter", and it becomes more descriptive as the blog post continues.[9] The statement provides two Tweets as examples, and an assessment follows. The service concludes the announcement with a paragraph that summarizes their findings: that the two Tweets were likely intended to incite acts of violence similar to those that occurred on January 6th, 2021.[9]

Following his suspension from the platform, Trump founded his own service called Truth Social, a website intended to encourage free speech of any kind. This platform, which is used by 2% of U.S. adults for news, identifies itself as nonpartisan. Critics report that, despite this claim, Truth Social has blocked content due to the political views expressed by users.[10]

Kanye West

In October of 2022, Kanye "Ye" West was suspended from Twitter after a public rant that included antisemitic comments. Following this rant, tweets with the keyword "Jews" spiked on the platform.[11] Following this six-week ban, Ye returned to the platform on November 20th of 2022 with a testing tweet, intended to detect if he had control back of the account. [12] This reinstatement lasted just under two weeks, as his account was once again suspended on December 2nd of 2022 following the tweet of an image that included a swastika combined with the Star of David. In response to this, Elon Musk sent out a tweet explaining the decision, and officially declaring the Ye's account would be suspended.[13]

Suspension of Journalists

Following a separate string of suspensions came the banning of half a dozen journalists in December of 2022. The reason to ban these accounts from the platform was a shared message that they "violated the Twitter rules," though the connection between the suspensions was unknown.[14]

The following evening, Musk published a public poll to make the decision on whether or not the accounts should be reinstated. The poll's results included 58.7% of participants voting in favor of lifting the suspensions while 41.3% voted in favor of waiting an extra seven days.[15]

Oppositions

Free speech advocates are often against censorship on Twitter in any way, as many of them come from countries in which their constitutional rights include the aforementioned freedom.[2]

One way that Twitter censors media on the platform is through shadow banning, an automatic online moderation approach for preventing unwanted behavior.[16] This method limits the reach of a user's posts on social media without notifying them, which has caused complaints from users who believe it violates freedom of speech.[16]

Censorship Responsibilities

Country Requests for Censorship

Some countries have submitted requests for specific content to be censored rather than blocking their citizens from using Twitter in its entirety.

Germany

Following a request[17] from the German police, Twitter made the decision to censor an account for the first time. The account, which was run by a neo-Nazi group defined as a "criminal association" by the German police, was still able to be viewed in other countries.[18]

Israel

In 2016, the Israeli government sent in a request for a tweet published in the United States to be blocked from viewing in Israel. Israeli law prohibits the identifying of minors in serious situations, and the tweet in question dealt with an alleged sexual assault by a ministry employee on his daughter.[19]

Pakistan

A Pakistani bureaucrat, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, requested a shield from accounts, tweets, or searches on Twitter that he deemed blasphemous or unethical. This request, which was made at least five times, was honored each time. This prohibited Pakistani users from seeing content such as crude drawings of the Prophet Muhammed, photographs of burning Qurans, and messages from anti-Islam bloggers. This marked the first time Twitter agreed to censor content in this country, and it came in anticipation of an annual holiday deemed "Everybody Draw Muhammed Day".[20]

Venezuela

In February of 2014, Venezuelan users reported the inability to view videos or images on Twitter. This welcomed a confirmation from the platform itself that Venezuela had blocked images and videos following an anti-government protest. The company offered a workaround to users in which they would be texted the tweets and be able to view images and videos that way. Venezuela managed to block this content itself through its main telecommunications company, CANTV. CANTV is a government-run company that handles most of the Internet traffic in the country, and it was also responsible for the suspension of broadcasting within the country on a regional news channel that may have been responsible for anarchy incitements.[21]

Countries with a Twitter ban

Rather than request for Twitter to censor specific content in their country, some countries decide to block the social media service in its entirety.

China

In June of 2009, citizens of China reported online that they were unable to access Twitter. This was initially believed to be in connection with the approaching twentieth anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen Square, and many social media experts began to suspect the blocking of many websites to limit the possibility of widespread protest. This marked the first time China blocked the social media service.[22]

Users who violate the ban are met with consequences. In 2020, the son of a prolific journalist was fired as a punishment for his mother. The journalist, Gao Yu, was also blacklisted on other levels, as her friends were also warned to not contact her. Punishments vary in severity, with some offenders receiving jail time.[23]

Using the platform overseas can also result in punishment. The mother of an international Chinese student studying in the United States was punished for a tweet he made on an account with four followers, in which he referred to the Coronavirus as "the China virus".[22]

Iran

Prior to the presidential elections in 2009, the Iranian government blocked several social media websites including Twitter and Facebook.[24]

This ban was undone in 2013. Though there was no official announcement of the return of these social networking websites, users throughout the country were reporting the ability to access and make posts on these platforms. This allowance followed the newly elected president describing Internet censorship as "futile".[25]

North Korea

North Korea announced an official blockage of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and various South Korean websites in 2016. Prior to this ban, very few citizens of the country had Internet access, and the banning of these websites further isolated the country from the rest of the world.[26]

In the announcement made by The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, it was also stated that any attempt to hack into, access improperly, or distribute data against the country would be met with punishment.[26]

Elon Musk Unbanning Users

Donald Trump

After being suspended following the January 6th attacks in 2021, Donald Trump's Twitter account was reinstated in late 2022. Having just taken ownership over the social media service, Elon Musk launched a public poll to decide the future of Trump's account. Around 15 million users participated in the poll, with 51.8% voting in favor of reinstating the former U.S. president's account and 48.2% opposing the action.[27]

Kanye West

Kanye "Ye" West's Twitter account was reinstated just before Elon Musk took ownership of the company. After this, Musk stated that the site's new policy would be "freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach". Soon after this statement, Ye tweeted a string of antisemitic remarks that resulted in another banning from the platform. As a response, Musk tweeted "I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended".[13]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Encyclopædia Britannica. (n.d.). Twitter. Britannica Academic. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Twitter/471629
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Estes, A. C. (2012, October 17). Twitter Censors Users for the First Time. The Atlantic. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/twitter-censors-users-first-time/322421/
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Stone, B. (2011, January 28). Tweets still must flow. Twitter. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/a/2011/the-tweets-must-flow.html
  4. ↑ Conger, K., & Hirsch, L. (2022, October 28). Elon Musk Completes $44 Billion Deal to Own Twitter. The New York Times. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/27/technology/elon-musk-twitter-deal-complete.html
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Nakajima, K., Yang, M., & Bond, S. (2022, October 28). Elon Musk has finally bought Twitter: A timeline of the twists and turns. NPR. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://www.npr.org/2022/10/27/1131378869/twitter-elon-musk-timeline
  6. ↑ Maring, J. (2023, February 8). Twitter is down and not letting us tweet - it says users are over a daily limit [Update]. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/twitter-is-down-and-not-letting-us-tweet-says-users-are-over-a-daily-limit/ar-AA17gsS8
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Twitter. (n.d.). The Twitter Rules. Twitter. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-rules
  8. ↑ Twitter. (n.d.). Our approach to policy development and enforcement philosophy. Twitter. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/enforcement-philosophy
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Twitter. (2021, January 8). Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump. Twitter. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/suspension
  10. ↑ Forman-Katz, N., & Stocking, G. (2023, January 24). Key facts about Truth Social. Pew Research Center. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/11/18/key-facts-about-truth-social-as-donald-trump-runs-for-u-s-president-again/
  11. ↑ Jikeli, G., & Soemer, K. (2022). Conversations About Jews on Twitter: Recent Developments Since Elon Musk’s Takeover. Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, 2–6. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://isca.indiana.edu/publication-research/social-media-project/Conversations-About-Jews-on-Twitter.-Recent-Developments-Since-the-Takeover-by-Elon-Musk.pdf.
  12. ↑ Farberov, S. (2022, November 21). Kanye West returns to Twitter with ‘Shalom’ post after ban over anti-Semitic rant. New York Post. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://nypost.com/2022/11/21/kanye-west-returns-to-twitter-with-shalom-post-after-ban/
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Lerman, R., Zakrzewski, C., & Francis, E. (2022, Dec 03). Elon Musk says Kanye West is suspended from Twitter. The Washington Post https://proxy.lib.umich.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/elon-musk-says-kanye-west-is-suspended-twitter/docview/2745194038/se-2
  14. ↑ Isaac, M., & Conger, K. (2022, December 16). Twitter Suspends Accounts of Half a Dozen Journalists. The New York Times. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/15/technology/twitter-suspends-journalist-accounts-elon-musk.html
  15. ↑ Kim, J. (2022, December 18). Elon Musk reinstates suspended journalists on Twitter after backlash. NPR. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://www.npr.org/2022/12/17/1143796992/twitter-lifts-suspensions-on-several-journalists-amid-rift-between-the-site-and-
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Marcondes, F. S., Baldi, V., Durães, D., Gala, A., Novais, P., Moreira, F., & Almeida, J. J. (2021, November 23). A Profile on Twitter Shadowban: An AI Ethics Position Paper on Free-Speech. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-91608-4_39#citeas.
  17. ↑ German police ask Twitter to close account. Lumen. (n.d.). Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/1799690#
  18. ↑ Seward, Z. M. (2012, October 18). Twitter censors an account for the first time, banning a neo-Nazi group from being viewed in Germany. Quartz. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://qz.com/17027/twitter-censors-an-account-for-the-first-time-banning-a-neo-nazi-group-in-germany
  19. ↑ Peled, D. (2016, August 11). Twitter Agrees To Remove Tweet At Israel’s Request. Vocativ. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://www.vocativ.com/349919/twitter-agrees-to-censor-tweet-at-israels-request/
  20. ↑ Mackey, R. (2014, May 23). Twitter Agrees to Block 'Blasphemous' Tweets in Pakistan. The New York Times. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/22/world/asia/twitter-agrees-to-block-blasphemous-tweets-in-pakistan.html
  21. ↑ Gannett Satellite Information Network. (2014, February 15). Twitter reports image blocking in Venezuela. USA Today. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/02/14/twitter-image-blocking-venezuela/5497219/
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Swartz, J. (2009, June 2). Social-networking sites Twitter, Flickr go dark in China. ABC News. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=7740689&page=1
  23. ↑ Han, D. (2020, November 11). Chinese Authorities Punish Citizens for Using Foreign Social Media. VOA. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://www.voanews.com/a/east-asia-pacific_voa-news-china_chinese-authorities-punish-citizens-using-foreign-social-media/6198214.html
  24. ↑ Sheikholeslami, A. (2009, May 23). Iran blocks Facebook, Twitter sites before elections (UPDATE1). Iran Blocks Facebook, Twitter Sites Before Elections (Update1). Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://web.archive.org/web/20150924183021/http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=anh.uW3gNZp4
  25. ↑ Taylor, C. (2022, March 11). Iran unblocks Twitter and Facebook. Mashable. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://mashable.com/archive/twitter-facebook-iran
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Guardian News and Media. (2016, April 1). North Korea announces blocks on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The Guardian. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/01/north-korea-announces-blocks-on-facebook-twitter-and-youtube
  27. ↑ Duffy, C., & LeBlanc, P. (2022, November 20). Elon Musk restores Donald Trump's Twitter account. CNN. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/19/business/twitter-musk-trump-reinstate/index.html
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