Twitter on Thursday said it has developed a way to filter out tweets that run afoul of certain countries' restrictions on speech.
Germany and France, for example, ban pro-Nazi content. But while that type of sentiment might be frowned upon, it is protected speech under the First Amendment here in the United States.
"Until now, the only way we could take account of those countries' limits was to remove content globally," Twitter said in a blog post. "Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world. We have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why."
The micro-blogging site said it has not yet used this technology, but if the company is called up on to deploy it, "we will attempt to let the user know, and we will clearly mark when the content has been withheld," Twitter said (see below).
Twitter said it will use the IP address from which you are viewing the site to determine location.
Twitter used Germany and France as an example, but it did not go into specific details about how it might react to requests for censorship from more restrictive regimes. Twitter, for example, was used by many of those involved in the Arab Spring uprising last year in the Middle East, prompting governments in many countries to shut off access to the Internet entirely.
As Twitter describes it, this new ability will basically be used much like Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notices are honored in this country. "If we receive a valid and properly scoped request from an authorized entity, it may be necessary to reactively withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time," Twitter said.
It did not define what a "valid and properly scoped" request would entail, but stressed that "we strongly believe that the open and free exchange of information has a positive global impact."
Like Google's transparency reports, meanwhile, Twitter said it has expanded its partnership with Chilling Effects for a new page, chillingeffects.org/twitter, which shows Twitter-related cease-and-desist notices.
That included a request from Simon & Schuster to remove a tweet that linked to a Web site with infringing material. Universal Music also requested the removal of tweets that linked to Nicki Minaj content.
"One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user's voice," Twitter concluded. "We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent with users when we can't. The Tweets must continue to flow."
