Censorship on Twitter

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

In October of 2022, Elon Musk purchased the social media service Twitter. 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. Musk also made many promises, including the plan to make the service more profitable.
Musk, who also owns companies such as SpaceX and Tesla, added the name "Chief Twit" to his Twitter bio page following the 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.

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.

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. The webpage continues with these topics, detailing the exact meaning of each one.

Banned Users

Donald Trump

- mention truth social

Censorship Responsibilities

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.