Is Twitter censoring #flotilla?

j_baker 15 years ago |

Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity.

rbanffy 15 years ago | |

Or automated procedures.

You can't call your immune system stupid when you have a severe allergy. It's just doing what it evolved to do.

helium 15 years ago |

The search works for me, but only when I'm signed out. This leads me to believe that this is some sort of technical issue. Besides, I don't think they are stupid enough to do something like censoring this.

TimH 15 years ago |

Ahh - wait - I see if you search from the main site, it fails for me now too. http://search.twitter.com works though. Weird. I expect it's due to a some bug/performance failure rather than an intentional censorship. Otherwise search.twitter.com would be censored too.

dasil003 15 years ago | |

Both work for me. I have to assume there was just some technical issue (due to unusual volume?) and they have it resolved now.

RuadhanMc 15 years ago | |

I hope so.

spif 15 years ago |

No, it's not: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=flotilla

rriepe 15 years ago |

Please be a technical error.

They could undo a lot of good will (Iran elections, etc) just by censoring this one thing.

lsc 15 years ago | |

Regardless of the root cause, I think twitter just took one to the face. This looks pretty bad, even if they come out and say "oh, our spamfilter system malfunctioned."

I sympathise, though. I've run email spamfilters before, and boy, people get /pissed/ when false positives happen.

TimH 15 years ago |

I just flagged this story. Does that mean an op will review it?

I think it's wrong to state that Twitter is censoring, and is harmful. It should have been posted as a question instead.

[edit: The poster's reviewed it.]

gojomo 15 years ago |

Headline draws controversial conclusion from incomplete data and should be changed.

For example, this could be the result of automated measures to prevent spamming the trending topics gone haywire. Or not. But accusing censorship without knowing the whole story is just hair-trigger indignation.

ertug 15 years ago | |

Changed the headline to a question.

three14 15 years ago | | |

When did you stop beating your wife?

I understand that you actually mean well, and mean the question seriously, but in "Internet discussion" the question mark only protects the reputation of the asker, but does nothing to protect the reputation of Twitter.

rriepe 15 years ago | | |

An analogous question would be "Are you beating your wife?"

"Is Twitter censoring?" isn't assuming anything in the question.

three14 15 years ago | | |

You're right, of course. But I still think that someone skimming the HN headlines thinks, "Oh, Twitter probably censoring something or it wouldn't be on HN" unless they read the comments.

davidw 15 years ago | | |

Isn't that more of a comment on the state of the readership than anything else?

donohoe 15 years ago | | |

Agree. While you cover yourself you still make a slur to which the is little comeback.

petercooper 15 years ago | | |

While you cover yourself you still make a slur to which the is little comeback.

Except "No, we are not censoring #flotilla," of course.

three14 15 years ago | | |

That's exactly what's so interesting about these kinds of questions. Let's say they were really censoring, and they said, "No, we are not censoring #flotilla," and stopped censoring. You can't tell the difference between that and a bug followed by a bug fix, so they have trouble putting the suspicion to rest.

msy 15 years ago |

I note the generally less controversial Stephen Fry is complaining about unrelated Trending Topic oddness this morning, looks like they've screwed up their system somehow and the #flotilla thing is a coincidence. http://twitter.com/stephenfry/status/15064838816

nhebb 15 years ago |

I don't get the technical error message for #flotilla, but a search on the tag acts like it's being ignored. However, http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23freedomflotilla is a trending topic and yields results.

silversmith 15 years ago |

The posted link shows fresh results. Clicking on the hashtag works too. Where's the problem?

Edit: Safari on iPhone, located in Latvia.

mattwdelong 15 years ago | |

There WAS a problem. I think it`s purely technical.

rriepe 15 years ago |

People are now using #freedomflotilla instead of #flotilla, for those of you who wanted to participate.

rriepe 15 years ago | |

And for that matter, #flotilla now works for me, when it wasn't working before. Anyone else?

EDIT: And now it's not. This is too weird.

TimH 15 years ago |

I see people here agreeing, but when I visit http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23flotilla it appears fine?

Here's what I see: http://twitpic.com/1spne4

stdan27 15 years ago | |

When I click that link I get "Something is technically wrong."

pieter 15 years ago | |

I agree, I'd like to see a screenshot on how it is censored.

ComputerGuru 15 years ago | | |

http://neosmart.net/blog/2010/twitter-actively-censoring-flo...

fwez 15 years ago |

It probably tripped an anti-spam filter. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/may/31/twitte...

mattwdelong 15 years ago |

It`s trending in Canada: http://imgur.com/XaeuJ.png

But wtf? I click it, and I can't access the search?

edit: I can report that clicking on #flotilla in trending topics is now functional.

yigit 15 years ago |

Also true for the word "İsrail" which is Israel in Turkish.

stfp 15 years ago | |

Indeed - both fail for me when searching, typing directly in the URL or when clicking in tweets.

TimH 15 years ago |

I don't think they would do this. Care to explain?

ertug 15 years ago | |

I don't want to think they would this too but this is too weird.

The hashtag is about the humanitarian aid to Gaza: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle_east/10195838.stm

ertug 15 years ago |

The hashtags #flotilla and #israil still gives "Something is technically wrong." error in Turkey. I confirmed it with many people here.

liedra 15 years ago |

"Aid Flotilla" is trending in the UK.

Screenshot: http://grab.by/4Fiy

stfp 15 years ago | |

but try clicking on it

liedra 15 years ago | | |

Oh, I see. I thought it was just about how #flotilla wasn't being reported in the trending topics. How odd, indeed!

stdan27 15 years ago | | |

Doesn't work for me.. I really hope this is a technical issue and not something else.

ErrantX 15 years ago |

Works for me intermittently; technical error.

Emore 15 years ago |

This could be either because:

1) Israel is pushing Twitter to censor these terms

2) Someone at Twitter HQ blindly supports Israel

Either way it completely destroys perhaps the most important usage for Twitter: a voice for those in the epicenter of something happening.

dagw 15 years ago | |

3) Some sort of technical issue or bug.

lsc 15 years ago | | |

Considering the interests of all involved, this seems to me like the most likely answer. There is no way that people at twitter rationally weighed their self interest and decided to start censoring things. There is zero upside, and a rather large downside for twitter. It's just not in their financial best interest. Israel isn't going to block them or take other action that would financially harm twitter for simply publishing text messages from people. And the publicity fallout from censorship is so obviously bad that there is no way that any rational owner of twitter would approve a move like this.

My money is on a haywire spamfiltering system... but we will see. If the people running twitter are not morons, we'll see an explanation shortly.