Censorship of Twitter refers to
Internet censorship
Internet censorship is the legal control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the Internet. Censorship is most often applied to specific internet domains (such as Wikipedia.org) but exceptionally may extend to all Int ...
by governments that block access to
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
. Twitter censorship also includes governmental
notice and take down
Notice and take down is a process operated by online hosts in response to court orders or allegations that content is illegal. Content is removed by the host following notice. Notice and take down is widely operated in relation to copyright infri ...
requests to Twitter, which Twitter enforces in accordance with its
Terms of Service when a government or authority submits a valid removal request to Twitter indicating that specific content (such as a tweet) is illegal in their jurisdiction.
Restrictions based on government request
Twitter acts on complaints by third parties, including governments, to remove illegal content in accordance with the laws of the countries in which people use the service. On processing a successful complaint about an illegal tweet from "government officials, companies or another outside party", the social networking site will notify users from that country that they may not see it.
France
Following the posting of an
antisemitic and racist posts by anonymous users, Twitter removed those posts from its service. Lawsuits were filed by the Union of Jewish Students (UEJF), a French advocacy group and, on January 24, 2013, Judge Anne-Marie Sauteraud ordered Twitter to divulge the
personally identifiable information about the user who posted the antisemitic post, charging that the posts violated French laws against
hate speech. Twitter responded by saying that it was "reviewing its options" regarding the French charges. Twitter was given two weeks to comply with the court order before daily fines of €1,000 (about US$1,300) would be assessed. Issues over jurisdiction arise, because Twitter has no offices nor employees within France, so it is unclear how a French court could sanction Twitter.
India
Twitter accounts spoofing the
Prime Minister of India such as "PM0India", "Indian-pm" and "PMOIndiaa" were blocked in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
in August 2012 following violence in
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
.
During the curfew in
Jammu and Kashmir after
Indian revocation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status
On 5 August 2019, the Parliament of India voted in favour of a resolution tabled by Home Minister Amit Shah to revoke the temporary special status, or autonomy, granted under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir—a reg ...
on 5 August 2019, the Indian government approached Twitter to suspend accounts which were spreading rumours and anti-India content.
This included the Twitter account of
Syed Ali Shah Geelani
Syed Ali Shah Geelani (1929–2021) was an Islamist,
pro-Pakistan,
Sumantra BoseSyed Ali Shah Geelani: The man who fought for Kashmir’s freedom BBC News, 2 September 2021. "First, he made it clear that although a proud Kashmiri, he conside ...
, a Kashmiri separatist leader. On 3 August 2019, Geelani tweeted "India is about to launch the biggest genocide in the history of mankind",
leading which, his account was suspended on request by authorities. Two days later, on August 5, the Indian parliament passed resolution to bifurcate the Jammu and Kashmir state into two union territories.
In February 2021, Twitter blocked hundreds of accounts that were posting about the
Indian farmers protest from being accessed by users in India, by request of the
Ministry of Home Affairs
An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs.
Lists of current ministries of internal affairs
Named "ministry"
* Ministry ...
; the government ministry alleged that the accounts were spreading misinformation. Later that month, Twitter became subject to the national ''Social Media Ethics Code'', which expects all social media companies operating in the country to remove content by request of the government within 36 hours, and appoint a local representative who is an Indian resident and passport holder
On May 18, 2021,
Bhartiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...
national spokesperson
Sambit Patra
Sambit Patra (born 13 December 1974) is an Indian politician and has served as the National spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party since 2014 and currently serving as a chairman in tourism department. Patra had his first job at Hindu Rao Ho ...
posted an image alleged to be from an internal
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...
(INC) document, detailing a social media campaign against Prime Minister
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament fro ...
to criticize his handling of the
COVID-19 pandemic in India
The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). As of , according to Indian government figures, India has the second-highest n ...
. The INC disputed the posts and claimed that they were fabricated. Twitter subsequently marked the post as containing manipulated media.
The
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology issued a request for Twitter to remove the label, alleging that Twitter's decision was "prejudged, prejudiced, and a deliberate attempt to colour the investigation by the local law enforcement agency".
After Twitter refused to remove the label, its offices in New Delhi were raided by police.
In June 2021, Twitter lost its immunity as an "intermediary" under the
Information Technology Act
The Information Technology Act, 2000 (also known as ITA-2000, or the IT Act) is an Act of the Indian Parliament (No 21 of 2000) notified on 17 October 2000. It is the primary law in India dealing with cybercrime and electronic commerce.
Secon ...
for its failure to appoint a local representative. It will be considered publisher of all materials posted on the platform. Later the same month, police in
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
registered a case against Twitter accusing it of distribution of child pornography. In March 2022, Delhi High Court questioned Twitter on why it would not block users posting objectionable content about Hindu Gods in the same way they blocked US President Donald Trump. The court sought a detailed explanation of Twitter's policies and asked them to file an affidavit.
In July 2022, Twitter started a lawsuit against the government of India after being ordered to remove multiple accounts and tweets that violated India's laws. Twitter is arguing that the laws are too restrictive and challenging the orders to block content. The company stated that some of the blocking demands "pertain to political content that is posted by official handles of political parties" and said that such orders are "a violation of the freedom of speech".
Israel
In 2016, access to comments by the American
blogger
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
Richard Silverstein about a
criminal investigation
Criminal investigation is an applied science that involves the study of facts that are then used to inform criminal trials. A complete criminal investigation can include searching, interviews, interrogations, evidence collection and preservat ...
, which involved a minor and therefore was under a
gag order
A gag order (also known as a gagging order or suppression order) is an order, typically a legal order by a court or government, restricting information or comment from being made public or passed onto any unauthorized third party. The phrase may ...
according to Israeli law, was blocked to Israeli
IP address
An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...
es, following a request by
Israel's Ministry of Justice.
Pakistan
As of May 2014, Twitter regularly disables the ability to view specific "tweets" inside Pakistan, at the request of the
Government of Pakistan
The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the four provinces, two autonomous territorie ...
on the grounds that they are
blasphemous
Blasphemy is a speech crime and religious crime usually defined as an utterance that shows contempt, disrespects or insults a deity, an object considered sacred or something considered inviolable. Some religions regard blasphemy as a religio ...
, having done so five times in that month.
On November 25, 2017, the
NetBlocks internet shutdown observatory and
Digital Rights Foundation collected evidence of nation-wide blocking of Twitter alongside other social media services, imposed by the government in response to the religious political party
Tehreek-e-Labaik protests. The technical investigation found that all major Pakistani fixed-line and mobile service providers were affected by the restrictions, which were lifted by the PTA the next day when protests abated following the resignation of
Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid.
Russia
On May 19, 2014, Twitter blocked a pro-Ukrainian political account for Russian users. It happened soon after a Russian official had threatened to ban Twitter entirely if it refused to delete "tweets" that violated Russian law, according to the Russian news site Izvestia.
["Twitter Blocks Pro-Ukrainian Political Account for Russian Users"](_blank)
, Brian RiesMay, Mashable, May 19, 2014.
On July 27, 2014, Twitter blocked an account belonging to a hacker collective that has leaked several internal Kremlin documents to the Internet.
["Twitter 'Blocks' Access to Russia's Most Infamous Hackers"](_blank)
, Kevin Rothrock, Global Voices Online, July 27, 2014.
On March 10, 2021, Russia's
began
throttling
A throttle is any mechanism by which the power or speed of an engine is controlled.
Throttle or throttling may also refer to:
Fiction
* ''Throttle'' (film), a 2005 thriller
* ''Throttle'' (novella), a 2009 novella by Stephen King and his son Jo ...
Twitter on all mobile devices and 50% of computers due to claims that Twitter regulatory board failed to remove illegal content that includes suicide, child pornography, and drug use. They issued Twitter could be blocked in Russia if it did not comply. In an e-mail statement Twitter stated it was "deeply concerned to throttle online public conversation."
From March to April 2021 Roskomnadzor considered a ban and the removal of the IP of Twitter from Russia completely. The government agency was met with denials and lack of urgency from the social network. Roskomnadzor has the necessary “technical capabilities” to completely remove Twitter from Russian domain.
The severity of the situation occurred when over 3,000 posts containing child pornography in violation of Community Guidelines have been detected in 2021 by the agency that was later sent to Twitter regulatory board for verification. However Twitter sent no response back to the agency concerning the illegal content and has thereafter been charged of withholding its duty to maintain the social network's Community Guidelines.
On April 2, 2021, a Russian court found Twitter guilty on three counts of "violating regulations on restricting unlawful content," and ordered Twitter to pay $117,000 in fines. On April 5, 2021, Russia extended its throttling of Twitter until May 15, 2021. On May 17, 2021, Roskomnadzor said that Twitter had removed 91% of the banned content and backed off on blocking Twitter. Barring 600 posts still pending removal, the government agency also said they would continue throttling Twitter on Mobile Devices only saying that Twitter needed to remove all the banned items and in the future delete reportedly illegal posts within 24 hours for all restrictions to be lifted.
South Korea
In August 2010, the
Government of South Korea
The Government of South Korea is the union government of the Republic of Korea, created by the Constitution of South Korea as the executive, legislative and judicial authority of the republic. The president acts as the head of state and is th ...
tried to block certain content on Twitter due to the
North Korean government
In the North Korean government, the Cabinet is the administrative and executive body. The North Korean government consists of three branches: administrative, legislative, and judicial. However, they are not independent of each other, but al ...
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
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
's state-run Communications Standards Commission banned the Twitter account for broadcasting "illegal information."
According to
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
US and Canada, experts claim that North Korea has invested in "information technology for more than 20 years" with knowledge of how to use
.
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.
On October 29, 2020, the ISPs in Tanzania blocked social media in their country during election week. Other social media sites have been unblocked since then, but Twitter remains blocked across all ISPs.
On April 20, 2014, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, FAZ, reported Twitter had blocked two regime hostile accounts in Turkey, @Bascalan and @Haramzadeler333, both known for pointing out corruption. In fact, on March 26, 2014, Twitter announced that it started to use its Country Withheld Content tool for the first time in Turkey. As of June 2014, Twitter was withholding 14 accounts and "hundreds of tweets" in Turkey.
Turkey submitted the highest volume of removal requests to Twitter in 2014, 2015,
and 2018.
While in 2019 was third.
, a walkie-talkie app.
In response to the block, Twitter offered Venezuelan users a workaround to use their accounts via
on their mobile phones.
reported the blocking of Twitter by state-run Internet provider CANTV for a duration of 40 minutes. The disruption followed the sharing of a tweet made by opposition leader
, which was also restricted access during the incident. The outages were found to be consistent with a pattern of brief, targeted filtering of other social platforms established during the country's
.