[liberationtech] Twitter May Censor Tweets in Individual Countries

[James Losey]

>
> At the end of the day, the real problem is laws that violate human rights
> which governments then use to apply pressure to companies.


+1. While quite a bit of the concerns I've seen in articles and twitter are
conjectures on how this will affect the use of Twitter in Latin America or
the Middle East, my read is that the new policy will have an impact in
countries where Twitter has an office. Considering the copyright, libel, or
other laws that can impact free speech in Ireland, the UK, and Germany this
policy could potentially provide data on how freedom of expression is
limited in these countries. The initial dump shows 4k DCMA takedown
requests on tweets in the US over the last year.

Best,
J

On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 4:59 PM, Cynthia Wong <cynthia at cdt.org> wrote:

> Just to play devil's advocate: As others have pointed out, France and
> Germany have strong hate speech laws that restrict pro-Nazi speech,
> holocaust denial, etc. -- speech that is fully protected under the 1st
> Amendment.  However, these laws are ok under Article 19 jurisprudence,
> which allows limitations on speech if they are necessary for protecting
> another right (like human dignity).  So I don't think it is fair to say
> that Twitter is violating human rights by complying with French speech laws.
>
> On the other hand, companies do have a responsibility to their users to
> mitigate the human rights impact of their business, including when
> responding to government requests to censor.  The real discussion must be
> around how companies like Twitter can mitigate the harm as much as
> possible.  My response is that social media companies should
> * be as transparent as possible when they are asked by governments to
> restrict speech,
> * limit the scope of the restriction as much as possible when they do
> comply,
> * challenge legally invalid requests as much as they can, given local
> legal systems,
> * work with NGOs and others to change laws that don't meet human rights
> standards
>
> At the end of the day, the real problem is laws that violate human rights
> which governments then use to apply pressure to companies.
>
>
> //
> Cynthia M. Wong
> Director, Global Internet Freedom Project
> Center for Democracy & Technology
>
> CDT  •  1634 I Street NW  •  Suite 1100  •  Washington, DC 20006
> E cynthia at cdt.org P +1-202-407-8835 F +1-202-637-0968
>
> Keeping the Internet Open, Innovative & Free!
>
> Follow our work on Twitter @CenDemTech @cynthiamw
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Jan 27, 2012, at 12:21 PM, Kate Krauss wrote:
>
> Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The Universal Declaration of Human
> Rights (1948, applies to all countries), says this:
>
>
> Article 19.
>        • Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this
> right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek,
> receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless
> of frontiers.
>
> http://www.un.org/en/**documents/udhr/<http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/>
>
> These are not arbitrary standards. What Twitter is planning to do is a
> human rights violation.  It's no different than if they went into other
> countries to censor the newspapers.
>
>
> Kate Krauss
> Executive Director,
> The AIDS Policy Project
>
> On Jan 27, 2012, at 8:54 AM, frankltd at fastmail.co.uk wrote:
>
>  However, will Twitter country specific censorship be as transparent as
>> being able cross check with take down notices such as these:
>> https://www.chillingeffects.**org/dmca512c/notice.cgi<https://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512c/notice.cgi>?
>>
>> Frank
>>
>> ----- Original message -----
>> From: "Marc" <marc at let.de>
>> To: liberationtech at lists.stanford.**edu<liberationtech at lists.stanford.edu>
>> Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:44:32 +0100
>> Subject: Re: [liberationtech] Twitter May Censor Tweets in Individual
>> Countries
>>
>> They are trying to solve the problem of content that is illegal in some
>>
>>> places, but not
>>> in others. As far as I understand, previously, they removed such content
>>> completely. Now, they can at least pretend not to display it in certain
>>> countries and keep it up in others
>>>
>>
>>
>> I think this is an infinite loop
>>
>> https://projects.eff.org/~**barlow/Declaration-Final.html<https://projects.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html>
>>
>>
>> :(
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