#Censor This

1/27/2012

As we will see, the way an economy operates from country to country can vary greatly. One of the key facets to this variation is economic freedom. In fact, many argue that freedom is the means by which progress is achieved. This article talks about how Twitter is planning to deal with these cross country differences. What do you suppose will be the impact of Twitter adopting this technology? Similar to the previous article that concerned China, is Twitter obligated to conform to American standards? Or, should they have the freedom to censor and pursue wider markets?

Sarah Griffin

1/29/2012 03:58:48 am

I understand why Twitter is becoming more government friendly, but at the same time, part of the power of Twitter is the ability to transcend the legal red tape at a time of necessity. Think of the protests in middle east - how many of the tweets that protesters used to communicate with each other would be considered illegal by their home countries? For good or ill, the power of Twitter is in the freedom. I think losing that would be a blow.

Matt Huebert

1/29/2012 02:06:49 pm

I am in complete agreement here, bills like SOPA and the "Obama Care" are examples of how our freedoms are being corroded, although I hate twitter and facebook, they are symbols of freedom in our country, not only can you voice your opinion whatever it may be, you can do it in mass, no matter who you are, or what little resources you have.

R10403116

2/9/2012 09:17:23 am

I fully agree with this statement. A website that is almost solely dependent on the ability of its users to express themselves however they wish can not start censoring user content, just to be more “friendly” with the government of different nations. Twitter can be used as a powerful tool, but with the censorship of post in other countries the usefulness of it being used as tool to protest will all but disappear.

R10321572

1/29/2012 07:23:21 am

I think that the major social networking sites, having grown exponentially, are just facing the dilemma of either staying close to the roots they were founded on, or look at the corporate side of things, such as expanding their org. to a global scale. Myspace went through the progression of being all about just connecting people, then it become so overgrown with ads it was obsolete. Facebook is going through a similar transition where they are trying to maximize profit by having ads on the side of the page. Twitter is just trying to expand themselves and make themselves more marketable for every country, and it is understandable. They ultimately have to think about two options, do they stay true and provide the same platform of freedom of voice, or do they allow themselves to succumb to corporate expansion?

10444048

1/30/2012 04:50:16 am

I agree with you completely. What to do about it is a huge decision. As a user of Facebook and Twitter I personally hope they stay away from throwing in ads. Everything we do in the US is involved with some company in some way. I say keep it a simple social network, not as a marketing tool. If it is used as a marketing tool people will stay away from the site more and more.

R10429661

1/30/2012 05:00:47 am

I agree with you. I know I was a myspace user and then could not stand it because of the constant advertisements, and now I am getting old with facebook. I want a social network to remain a social network because that is what is intended for.

William Crawford

1/31/2012 01:38:48 pm

That seems kind of unreasonable because you can't really have a successful, grossing social network, without some sort of advertisements. At least Facebook has side ads that are somewhat related to you based on what you're already interested in. And Twitter has rarely used "promoted" tweets that are pretty simple and are kind of based on what you follow, like with Facebook. If you're using something that's purely free, including YouTube, Vevo, Hulu, there are going to have to be ads to keep you from paying a fee. You pay for things like Netflix, thus there are no ads during streaming.

Robert Ainslie

2/9/2012 05:11:37 am

In my opinion Facebook is going to succumb to the fate that MySpace sustained. They really don't have any adds that were put on there website themselves. They are just being hacked daily by people trying to spread viruses and advertise products through other websites. So in no way do I think its in the near future for facebook to plummet.

R10438726

1/29/2012 04:10:03 pm

Twitter should be able to take its business anywhere even if that means censoring the information that is availible on its site.

R10363252

2/9/2012 03:28:54 am

I agree. We have to be respectful of other people's and communities' beliefs. To operate in the rest of the world, we have to be willing to adapt to the new surroundings.

R10368811

2/10/2012 12:33:30 am

I agree, twitter is its own corporation and should be able to operate where they want and how they want.

R10455834

1/30/2012 02:08:46 pm

It would be really nice if these fast growing companies that originally started with an admirable goal remained principled. It seems like all companies like Google, facebook, apple, are all started by idealism which itself makes them successful. Unfortunately the reality of an insatiable desire for growth forces them to "sell out". If your facing an IPO or public stockholders it is very hard to throw away billions of dollars in potential gains for principles.

R10410812

1/31/2012 01:42:34 pm

All these companies were all made with the idea of networking and it is disappointing to see companies selling out and forgetting the things they wanted from the start. It seems like things are getting more complicated than is necessary.

R10300144

1/31/2012 04:52:47 pm

I think that Twitter should do what it think it needs to be done in order to be successful in every nation. Just because we believe in freedom of speech in America doesn't mean that everybody believes that and I think Twitter is making a very interesting and bold move by saying we are not bound to America's rules on the world wide web.

Gabriel Davila

2/2/2012 07:15:18 am

At a personal level, I think that censorship at this kind of scale is plain wrong. Though what is right in one place can be wrong in another. So who am I to judge. Even though a company that is supposed to be devoted to freedom is now denying that is very hypocritical.

R10453152

2/5/2012 04:46:45 am

Twitter should have the freedom to pursue wider markets and not just being stuck to the US. With this expansion they should have to conform to the the countries standards of internet privacy/control.

R10421613

2/8/2012 06:13:12 am

I understand the point of Twitter trying to comply with other countries laws and regulations, but the whole point of Twitter is to allow freedom of expression and thought. If the government doesn't allow this, Twitter should not exist there.

10469266

2/9/2012 11:16:33 am

If twitter adopted this tech, they're straying away from the point of the site.... letting people know what you're doing. If you censor this by country, or other catagory isn't the site straying away from what you should use it for, just a bit?

R10363571

2/9/2012 11:48:49 pm

Twitter was meant for people to express themselves it should not be censored

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