“Twitter Revolutions” – the term is widely used and has been applied to the Arab spring, not only on the virtual “walls” of Facebook but also on the real walls of Middle East capitals where messages of support and thanks to the social networking website have appeared.

But could it already be becoming obsolete? Could Twitter lose the fund of sympathy it has built up among human rights activists in recent months?

Such a turn of events is no longer improbable, as indicated by the outraged reaction of some Internet users and dissidents throughout the world to the site’s announcement that it was introducing country-specific censorship in order to satisfy local laws in countries where it hopes to develop its business.

The first reaction by Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei was to threaten to stop tweeting if Twitter began censoring content. The noted Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas said on Al Jazeera television:

“I know that some of the people working for Twitter were activists … If we look at countries like Egypt, like Syria, like Yemen, of course all our tweets are breaking the law. And that’s what activists do, they break the law because they want to make changes to these unjust laws. They have the right to do that, and if you prevent them from this right then you are attacking human rights itself.”

Full Story: DICTATORS CAN THANK TWITTER FOR ITS NEW CENSORSHIP POLICY

Source: Reporters Without Borders