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Revision as of 19:36, 23 December 2011

Censorship of Twitter has generally occurred in countries with a history of Internet censorship.

China

Twitter is banned in China; however, many Chinese people use it anyway. In 2010 Cheng Jianping was sentenced to 1 year in a labor camp for commanding followers to attack the Japanese pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo on Twitter. Her fiancé claims the tweet was actually a satire of anti-Japanese sentiment in China.

United Kingdom

British Prime Minister threatened to shut down Twitter completely in that country in response to the civil unrest of 2011, though he is yet to carry this out.

Egypt

Twitter was inaccessible in Egypt on 25 January 2011 during the 2011 Egyptian protests. Some news reports blamed the government of Egypt for blocking it, and Vodafone Egypt, Egypt's largest mobile network operator, said it wasn't their action; however, Twitter's news releases did not state who the company believes instituted the block. As of January 26, Twitter was still confirming that the service was blocked in Egypt.

South Korea

In August 2010, the Government of South Korea tried to block certain content on Twitter due to the North Korean government opening a Twitter account. The North Korean Twitter account created on August 12, @uriminzok, loosely translated to mean "our people" in Korean, acquired over 4,500 followers in less than one week. On August 19, 2010, South Korea's state-run Communications Standards Commission banned the Twitter account for broadcasting "illegal information." According to BBC US and Canada, experts claim that North Korea has invested in "information technology for more than 20 years" with knowledge of how to use social networking sites to their power. This appears to be "nothing new" for North Korea as the reclusive country has always published propaganda in its press, usually against South Korea, calling them "warmongers." With only 36 tweets, the Twitter account was able to accumulate almost 9,000 followers. To date, the South Korean Commission has banned 65 sites, including this Twitter account.

References

1. Chinese woman, Cheng Jianping, sentenced to a year in labor camp over Twitter post Aliyah Shahid, 2010 11 18, NY Daily News, 2010-11-18
2. David Maddox, 2011 08 12, The Scotsman, 2011-08-12
3. Murphy, Dan (January 25, 2011). "Inspired by Tunisia, Egypt's protests appear unprecedented". The Christian Science Monitor.
4. "Twitter / Vodafone Egypt: We didn't block twitter - ..." Vodafone Egypt on Twitter. January 25, 2011. Retrieved January 25, 2011.
5. Sherman, Alex (January 26, 2011). "Twitter Says Access to Service in Egypt Is Blocked". Business Week. Retrieved January 25, 2011.
6. "Twitter / Twitter Comms: Egypt continues to block T ..." Twitter. January 26, 2011. Retrieved January 26, 2011.
7. Post Store (August 21, 2010). "South Korea tries to block Twitter messages from North". Washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2010-09-18.
8. ^ August 19, 2010 Zachary Sniderman View Comments (2010-08-19). "North Korea's Newly Launched Twitter Account Banned by South Korea". Mashable.com. Retrieved 2010-09-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
9. ^ Boyd, Clark (2010-08-18). "BBC News – North Korea creates Twitter and YouTube presence". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2010-09-18.

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