Tweeps Angered

The social networking website Twitter announced last week on its blog that it will “restrict certain types of content,” based on each countries’ laws and preferences. “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,” Twitter stated in its blog post on January 26. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo had announced last September that the popular website has more than 100 million active users who logged in at least once a month and 50 million active users every day. Twitter, however, has plans to expand further in the international arena, and to do so, they said, they have to respect “cultural” and “historical” aspects of how each country views freedom of expression. But the decision, as expected, came as a not-so-welcome surprise for the social network’s users, especially that Twitter was a crucial tool in fighting injustices in several countries clamping down on freedom of expression. Now, however, Twitter too will be censored. The minute the news became viral, the hashtag #TwitterCensored trended, as Tweeps posted their criticism and speculations of what could have triggered such a sudden decision. Many users quickly jumped to the conclusion that renowned Saudi businessman, Al Walid Bin Talal, who recently became a shareholder of Twitter, had something to do with it. “Is the new #TwitterCensored policy an aftermath of Al Walid Bin Talal handsome investment in @Twitter last year? #TwitterBlackout,” tweeted @Maverickzz. On the other hand, journalist and notorious Tweep, Mohamed El Dashan, tweeted “I doubt #TwitterCensored is a Saudi plot. Walid Ben Talal is a savvy businessman —plus he only owns three percent of @Twitter, hardly decision-making.” Others prophesied that this move will just be the end of Twitter; Dima Khattab was on the camp. “Honestly, Twitter, you are going down the road of your own self-destruction. Save yourself before it is too late,” tweeted Khattab. But negative tweets weren’t the only reaction, some users decided to take action and boycott the social network on Saturday protesting the decision. “Join #TwitterBlackout tomorrow, Jan 28. I will miss it, but Twitter must not yield to [governments] wanting to censor and silence,” tweeted member of the parliament of Saanich-Gulf Islands, Elizabeth May. The negative tweets are still ongoing, but so far, Twitter isn’t backing down on its decision. Several governments are rejoicing, in fact, Thailand’s government endorsed Twitter’s new censorship feature yesterday.