Twitter CEO Claims that They are not Censoring the Web

The CEO of Twitter Dick Costolo has spoken out to clear things about the company’s new policy.  During a conference at Laguna Nigel, California, Costolo announced that the company is having changes with its censorship policies. Last week, Twitter announced that they will start to censor tweets in some countries to abide by their laws and just recently that they started to censor tweets base on a country’s local law. The move triggered outrage and protest among followers and used the tag #TwitterBlackout and promised to boycott the social networking’s site on January 28. But Costolo said that Twitter is not censoring the net or web. Also, along with his colleague Josh Catone, Costolo argued that Twitter’s new policy will provide a greater freedom of speech. In the previous policy, if the government asked to remove a particular tweet or block a follower, access to the tweet or to the person would be blocked throughout the world. In the new policy, Twitter will only hide the tweet and the blocked person to a particular country demanding it but other countries can access it.

Costolo also said that there will be no changes in their stance, attitude and policy with regards to Twitter content. Instead, they are announcing a greater capability of their current status. If Twitter has been issued a legal order in a country (like DMCA notice) where they operate, they will be able to get away with as many followers throughout the world as possible without stepping into a country’s local law. Operating in a country means following the law that they abide. Right now, Twitter is blocked in China and Iran and they are hoping to operate on these countries soon. In the end, Costolo said that he wanted Twitter to be as transparent as possible and the issue is his honest and thoughtful way of doing it.

The move has been accepted by Thailand and China is all-praise with regards to the new policy. The twitter CEO also defended that the move is not to enter China.  The censorship that China reinforces does not affect Twitter in any way like removing topics and the new policy of verifying the real name.