Twitter has recently been in the news, although not for reasons resembling those of why they caught medua attention in 2011. No new winter arab uprising. No super injunction being exposed. No.

Twitter have effectively allowed for censorship to prevail against freedom of information around the world. Twitter have now allowed governments to censor post within that government’s own borders.

This is a change of pace since their positive attitude towards the free use of Twitter by large numbers of people seeking change. The “Arab Spring” has been particularly helped by Twitter, which at times helped better inform the world about what was happening in Egypt, Libya, etc.

These are bad times for Twitter’s PR, its users, the freedom of expression and the spread of truth around the world.

“We are willing enough to praise freedom when she is safely tucked away in the past and cannot be a nuisance. In the present, amidst dangers whose outcome we cannot foresee, we get nervous about her, and admit censorship.”

- Edward M. Forster, 1879 - 1970

— DS —