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Twitter Refuses To Disclose User Identity To Protect Freedom Of Expression

19.01.2015 18:15

Twitter, the phenomenal microblogging website, is on Turkey's agenda mainly because the government is waging a war on the anonymous whistleblower Fuat Avni (@fuatavnifuat), but the resilience Twitter has shown in protecting user information is not only limited to cases in Turkey, the company says. Today's Zaman paid a visit to Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco last week to learn more about the liberal-minded company. Twitter is more concerned with protecting freedom of expression than extending special treatment to users like @fuatavnifuat. Nu Wexler, from Twitter's public policy communications department, told Today's Zaman that Twitter has never shared any user information with the Turkish government, as stated in the transparency reports of the company on its website.

Twitter, the phenomenal microblogging website, is on Turkey's agenda mainly because the government is waging a war on the anonymous whistleblower Fuat Avni (@fuatavnifuat), but the resilience Twitter has shown in protecting user information is not only limited to cases in Turkey, the company says.

Today's Zaman paid a visit to Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco last week to learn more about the liberal-minded company. Twitter is more concerned with protecting freedom of expression than extending special treatment to users like @fuatavnifuat.

Nu Wexler, from Twitter's public policy communications department, told Today's Zaman that Twitter has never shared any user information with the Turkish government, as stated in the transparency reports of the company on its website. These reports display information about government requests to Twitter, including how much information a particular government asks for. In the first half of 2014 only, Turkey requested content removal with 65 court decisions as well as the user information of 24 accounts.

Wexler says Twitter does not comment specifically on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons, but they have legal guidelines for certain information that requires court decisions. "Our transparency report shows we have never turned over private user data to the Turkish government," said Wexler. In a recent example, Turkey asked Twitter to remove the account of the BirGün daily.

On Friday Twitter released a statement confirming a court order from the Turkish government. The company announced that out of the almost 60,000 Tweets on the account, Twitter withheld access in Turkey to the small number of Tweets that discussed the national security issue referenced in the order. Twitter went on to say, "Twitter continues to work diligently to protect the rights of our users and preserve access for millions of Twitter users in Turkey."

Twitter had made a similar announcement saying it had not disclosed any user information, such as email or IP addresses, to any Turkish institution when the government banned the social network in March 2014.

Turkish engineer İbrahim Okuyucu, who heads a part of the team in charge of growth in Twitter, confirmed that Twitter does not share user information with governments due to its strong support for freedom of expression. According to Okuyucu, among privacy advocacy groups there is great trust in Twitter due to its privacy policy.

Speaking with Today's Zaman in the Twitter offices in San Francisco, Okuyucu mentioned other contentious users and events concerning Twitter. For example when a young man in Los Angeles tweeted, "100 RTs [retweets] and I'll shoot someone walking on the street," the police arrested him.

In Mexico, an anonymous account with the name @Miut3 published information related to drug networks. Twitter did not reveal the identity of the user, but the account was later hacked, and its owner, a woman, was executed by drug cartels.

According to Okuyucu, closed regimes, which do not want their people to receive accurate information, do not like Twitter. He says the government of Venezuela asked Twitter to suspend an account that had announced black market exchange rates for the US dollar.

Twitter sues US government

Apparently, the pressure on Twitter is not only limited to foreign governments. The US government did not want Twitter to reveal how much information it had requested from the company regarding national security issues. However, citing the constitutional right to information, Twitter sued the US government in October 2014.

Twitter serves as an open channel in oppressive regimes, but why is it popular in the US, where media is relatively free? According to Okuyucu, expressing oneself is a necessity, and Twitter provides a global space by leveling the communication field. "A teenager can say hi to Justin Bieber on Twitter," Okuyucu notes, adding that Twitter can even sometimes be a diplomatic tool.

Okuyucu, who started a career in Silicon Valley after graduating from Bilkent University's computer science department, says that news breaks on Twitter before it does on conventional media outlets. Approximately 300 users active on a monthly basis send 500 million tweets every day. Twitter's power comes from the huge database it provide in terms of trends, not only for companies but also for governments.

According to Okuyucu, Twitter users are more sophisticated, but as the growth team their challenge is to make Twitter easier to understand for a first-time user.

Sevgi Akarçeşme, San Francisco (Cihan/Today's Zaman)



 
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