Media News - Monday, February 01, 2010

Twitter works on technology to foil censors

Twitter, the popular micro-blogging site, has revealed that it is working on technology that will block governments in countries like China and Iran from censoring its users. Twitter chief executive and co-founder Evan Williams told the Davos summit that the company was working on “interesting hacks” to stop governments interfering in its site but refused to divulge details of the new technology. Mr Williams was speaking in the wake of Google’s threat to close its Chinese service unless the government relaxes internet censorship after a series of cyber attacks on the email address of a number of its users. He said that Twitter, which just past the 75 million user mark, was too small to follow Google’s example in issuing foreign governments with such an ultimatum. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the man credited with inventing the internet, argued that China should receive help, rather than criticism, if it moves toward opening up the internet in the country during an interview at the sidelines of the Davos summit. However, Mr Williams disagreed arguing that governments that censor content should not be engaged with and instead companies should focus on erecting technological barriers to censorship. (Times)

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