Thursday, August 02, 2012

Freedom of speach or Twitter sensored

Twitter has been topping the news during the olympics, not because they changed their logo or because they incorporated new technologies but because they are the voice of its users. Journalists and athletes, fans and counterparts are all voicing their opinions causing account suspensions, arrests, and are even raising questions as to whether it is free speech or just uncontrollable expressions that need to be constrained.
A British journalist Had his account suspended for unauthorized distribution of  NBC's head and encouraged readers to write and complain about the coverage. This is a plain violation of privacy rules so his account was shut down.
Two athletes were caught up in a small discussion via Twitter and one ended up arrested for "suspicion of malicious communication. Is this getting out of hand? Is Twitter going to have to impose stronger rules? When does it protect and when does it become ridiculous? 

1 comment:

auerblog said...

As one of the greatest longstanding debates, freedom of speech in a modern day world has once again made it to the front page news. We are once again forced to reexamine what is permissible under freedom of speech, how do when know when it has gone too far, and what are the penalties/preventative measures in place to add some rigor to the way we can think about it? Some may reference the "porn-test" to determine whether freedom of speech has gone too far (ie. i'm not quite sure how to define it, but i will know it when I see it) while other will reference that you just can't yell fire in a crowded movie theater. Both reveal that freedom of speech has it's boundaries but that it is certainly more fluid than it is fixed. So not much has necessarily changed on that front, but what has changed is peoples' access to "freedom of speech" platforms. Bloggers, Facebook newsfeeds, and Twitter all give equal opportunity (any who cares to have an account, actually) to voice his/her opinion and broadcast it to those who care to listen (well read). What does this ultimately mean for the rest of us? Well, either the world is going to have to grow a thicker skin and appreciate that as long an no actual discrimination/hate crimes/threats are being made, insensitive comments should just be ignored. In case of true malpractice, and this is something for the lawyers to determine, then the perpetrators should be gone after with pitchforks. Ok, a bit dramatic, but hopefully you get my point.