There was considerable confusion, and opposition, following Twitter’s announcement Thursday that it can now censor tweets within specific countries if foreign governments request that it do so. The company’s top lawyer late Friday tried to clarify what the micro-blogging company will and won’t do.Some observers suspect Twitter is setting the stage for entering countries like China, where Internet companies must cooperate with authorities to filter out illegal information before it gets posted on their sites. Others were simply disappointed that Twitter, a self-proclaimed champion of free expression, is acknowledging that it would consider complying with censorship laws in individual countries-just as Internet companies such as Google, Yahoo and Facebook do today.
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/01/27/twitter-lawyer-responds-to-censorship-controversy/