Twitter: we don’t withhold content at a request

(Photo: AP)

By: Salma Tantawi

Twitter’s official account for global public policy announced via a series of tweets on Saturday that it does not withhold any content based on a mere request from a governmental official. This comes following controversies in Turkey over the suspension of three accounts which Turkish courts had ruled were in violation of the country's laws.

The social network states in its country withheld content policy that “Many countries, including the United States, have laws that may apply to Tweets and/or Twitter account content. In our continuing effort to make our services available to users everywhere, if we receive a valid and properly scoped request from an authorized entity, it may be necessary to reactively withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time.” An authorized entity here means an official court rule, not just an official request.

Making some content country-withheld means that users living within a certain country will not be able to see such content. Even though the block can be bypassed by users, the action is usually taken based on an order to officially make certain twitter users profiles inaccessible.