Difference between revisions of "Censorship on Twitter"

Revision as of 22:42, 10 February 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

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]

Jack Dorsey, original CEO of Twitter. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63527893

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.^[2]

- first documented occurrence of censorship

Elon Musk

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.^[3]

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. 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 with 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.^[4]

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.^[5] 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.^[6]

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.^[7] 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.^[8] 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]
- mention truth social

Kanye West

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.^[10]

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.^[11]

Algorithmic Censors

Hate Speech Detector

Oppositions

Censorship Responsibilities

Country Requests for Censorship

Countries with a Twitter ban

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.^[12]

References

1. ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica. (n.d.). Twitter. Britannica Academic. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Twitter/471629
2. ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica. (n.d.). Twitter. Britannica Academic. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Twitter/471629
3. ↑ 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
4. ↑ 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
5. ↑ Twitter. (n.d.). The Twitter Rules. Twitter. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-rules
6. ↑ Twitter. (n.d.). The Twitter Rules. Twitter. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-rules
7. ↑ 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
8. ↑ Twitter. (2021, January 8). Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump. Twitter. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/suspension
9. ↑ 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. ↑ 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
11. ↑ 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-
12. ↑ 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