Difference between revisions of "Censorship on Twitter"

Revision as of 02:53, 27 January 2023

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. 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

- when twitter was started
- first documented occurrence of censorship

Elon Musk

- other big events

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. Under the heading entitled "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.^[1]

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.^[2] The webpage continues with these topics, detailing the exact meaning of each one.

Banned Users

Donald Trump

Kanye West

other notable examples

Algorithmic Censors

Hate Speech Detector

Oppositions

Censorship Responsibilities

Country Requests for Censorship

Countries with a Twitter ban

Elon Musk Unbanning Users

Donald Trump

References

1. ↑ Twitter. (n.d.). The Twitter Rules. Twitter. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-rules
2. ↑ 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