Twitter Weighs in on China
Posted by Peter Inthirakoth in censor, censorship, China, Google, Twitter
Several weeks ago, Google announced that it was the victim of several cyber attacks directed at obtaining information on Chinese rights activists. The company announced that it would no longer censor search results in China and the US State Department even brought in its own remarks on the issue.
Now Twitter's CEO is making his own statements on the issue. Evan Williams has now publicly stated his support for Google's stance on censorship. Twitter has also been partially censored by the Chinese government as well as several other countries. Although Twitter supports freedom of speech, Williams has stated that the company has nowhere near the clout the Google does, reducing the ability of the company to engage the Chinese government.
What Twitter is able to do to support freedom of speech is inherent in the way Twitter is structured, according to Williams. Its open accessibility by various programs and websites allow users to access the service in ways that the Chinese government may find difficult to locate and censor. This is a subtle admission that although the company is not attempting to find ways to circumvent the Chinese government, third-party developers definitely have the capability to do it themselves.
Read the story here.