1. Freedom of Speech: Twitter Presented by David Mendel CS 151 Section 2 10/16/2012 Project #3 Group #1 Franklin Snider Luqman Asmat Nabil Hasbulah Clark Pastrick James Tiller

2. Introduction Freedom of speech: “the right to express any opinions without censorship or restraint” Social Media provides a platform for people to share their thoughts and feelings with the world Especially on Twitter, this causes lots of controversy Alexander Macgillivray, the chief lawyer of Twitter, says that “fighting for free speech is more than a good idea. It is a competitive advantage” 1

3. Cases of Free Speech As a result, Twitter spends lots of money and time fighting to protect the freedom of speech of its users Fought against a court order to remove comments by an Occupy Wall Street protestor Legal team fought against the Justice Department regarding WikiLeaks supporters who communicated on twitter 2

4. Challenges of Protecting Free Speech Need to balance freedom of speech and profitability This summer, Twitter suspended a British journalist, who criticized the Olympics on NBC, a corporate partner of Twitter 3

5. Twitter Terms of Service Users must not abuse, harass, threaten, impersonate or intimidate other Twitter users In August 2012, a woman complained about getting harassed on Twitter Instead of enforcing the Terms of Service, Twitter said they were in the process of revising its terms of service Twitter has this power because of the Communication Decency Act (CDA) The CDA protects companies from being liable for the speech of other posted on their sites 4

6. Exceptions to the Rule However, there are certain cases where Twitter will delete your account 5

7. Challenges of Protecting Free Speech “when internet companies control so much of what we say and do online, can Twitter stand up for privacy, free expression and profitability all at the same time?” Macgillivray insists Twitter draws a hard line between moneymaking and the content published by its users Do not want business interests affecting judgment about content. That is against corporate interests. It is against the trust users have in Twitter. 6

8. Twitter Cutting Down the Freedom of Speech In February of 2012, Twitter tried to limit the freedom of speech with its new policy The policy will enable Twitter to censor Tweets in individual countries Twitter CEO, Dick Costolo, regarded this as a more ‘rational’ approach rather than ‘forward looking’ one 7

9. Consequences of Free Speech When people have the freedom of speech, fake accounts can be created to imitate famous people. They can post tweets under the person’s name without his/her knowing. 8 Source: Forbes.com

10. Conclusion Freedom of Speech provides a competitive advantage. Twitter is willing to spend lots of money to uphold it. But Twitter will only do so as long as it is profitable. 9

11. Works Cited Mott, Patrick. "Freedom of Speech Doesn't Mean a Thing to Twitter -- Or Does It?" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 06 Aug. 2012. Web. 15 Oct. 2012.. Sengupta, Somini. "Twitter's Free Speech Defender." The New York Times. The New York Times, 03 Sept. 2012. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/technology/twitter-chief-lawyer- alexander-macgillivray-defender-free-speech.html?pagewanted=all. Buchanan, Matt. "Freedom Of Speech Doesn't Exist On Twitter." BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed, 9 Aug. 2012. Web. 15 Oct. 2012.. West, Ed. "Twitter and Tom Daley: Freedom of Speech Does Not Extend to the Freedom to Make Death Threats." News. Telegraph, 31 July 2012. Web. 15 Oct. 2012.. 10