At the request of the Pakistani regulator for the telecom market, Twitter has blocked tweets in at least five cases that are said to be blasphemous in nature. It would be the first time that Twitter has applied censorship in Pakistan. Civil rights movement EFF is concerned.
The offending tweets are said to refer, among other things, to drawings of the prophet Mohammed, burnings of the Koran and messages from anti-Islam bloggers. This content was qualified by the regulator as blasphemous and offensive, after which Twitter was requested to block these messages for internet users in Pakistan.
By blocking the tweets, Twitter allows governments to censor tweets. As an example, the social networking site cited Germany, where Nazi messages are prohibited by law. The functionality also seems to be designed to keep or make Twitter accessible in countries where there is less freedom. In addition to tweets, it is also possible to have accounts blocked.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation believes it regrets Twitter’s censorship measures against Pakistan because the social networking site had previously pledged to censor tweets and accounts only if Twitter has direct business interests in a country, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Japan and others. Germany. Although Twitter has for years advertised itself as a champion of freedom of expression, the EFF states that the company has increased censorship since its IPO. As an example, the digital civil rights movement cites a recent case in which it blocked a Ukrainian account of the nationalist Right Sector movement at the Russian request.