Censorship fears are misplaced, tweets from the Middle East will still buzz around the world
When Twitter announced it was giving itself the ability to censor particular tweets or users in certain countries, the immediate reaction among users of the network in the Middle East – as elsewhere – was: #sh*t.
Without overplaying its importance, Twitter has proved to be an invaluable tool for activists, enabling them to find up-to-date, accurate information and news, to publicise and to communicate among themselves, particularly in times of crisis. The hashtag #egypt was the most widely used on the social network in 2011, and a Dubai School of Government survey estimates Egypt had the largest number of active Twitter users in any Arab spring country.
Such is the fear of governments from social networks, particularly Twitter, the service has repeatedly been blocked in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.
But Twitter has proved to be among the most activist-friendly of social networks. From delaying a scheduled maintenance during the 2009 protests in Iran to quietly fighting a US court order to disclose private information on a number of its activist users, it is hard to accuse the microblogging platform of being a client of Middle Eastern governments. Fears that the $300m stake Saudi businessman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal took in Twitter would affect its freedom were rapidly cast aside by logic: the stake, at only 3% of the company – hardly qualifies anyone to make extensive policy changes.
Nevertheless, talk of using alternative sites spread on the network after the news broke on Friday. The site identi.ca was mentioned, as was open-source social network Diaspora, with users comparing their merits and disadvantages. The spirit of Jordan-based microblogging platform Watwet, which closed in June 2011, was also briefly touched on before being laid to rest: if censorship is the concern, a website under dictatorial jurisdiction may not be the best idea.
Workarounds that would neutralise the risk of censorship began to circulate rapidly, the simplest being to change, in the user's profile, the country of location to one where tweets would not be blocked. Many users, particularly in the Middle East, do not list their country of origin to protect their identities – a discrepancy noted by social media experts. It explains why estimates of user numbers in Arab spring countries vary wildly.
Others questioned how well Twitter's censorship could work. Social media expert and University of Maryland sociology professor Zeynep Tufekci cited the impossibility of dictatorial regimes fighting Twitter "tweet-by-tweet". The usefulness of Twitter, after all, lies largely in multiple sources and routes of information than individual tweets. Tufekci is supportive of the transparency Twitter's move introduces, by effectively informing users of what has been cancelled rather than the content disappearing with no trace.
It is doubtful that users, in the Middle East or beyond, will leave Twitter. The strength and breadth of its network makes it near impossible to replace or replicate on the short or medium term. Furthermore, it doesn't appear users would be willing to let go of their favourite platform: discussions about a one-day blackout of the network in protest appear lukewarm at best.
Most importantly, though, it doesn't appear it will be necessary, given the softness of Twitter's censorship and its easy circumvention.
As Twitter appears to be willing to fight for its users' freedom of speech, by pledging to report tweets censored or, as it has done before, to challenge court orders, users feel relatively comforted that the network won't sell them out. That trust, particularly for activists, is hard to replace.
Mohamed El Dahshan is an Egyptian activist and blogger