{"id":1101,"date":"2014-05-30T19:19:56","date_gmt":"2014-05-30T19:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=1101"},"modified":"2014-05-30T19:24:55","modified_gmt":"2014-05-30T19:24:55","slug":"what-might-twitter-in-china-look-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/what-might-twitter-in-china-look-like","title":{"rendered":"What Might Twitter In China Look Like?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In brief comments at Code Conference on Wednesday, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said that while the company has no immediate plans for entry into China, it is working on longer-term possibilities. \u201cWe\u2019re not in China right now,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re in the very beginning stages of conversations about what it would look like and feel like. I wouldn\u2019t say there\u2019s anything even on the near-term horizon.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Costolo\u2019s remarks suggest that Twitter, faced with slowing growth elsewhere, may be more willing to compromise than in 2012, when he said bluntly that \u201cI don\u2019t think the current environment in China is one in which we can operate.\u201d The company\u2019s recent agreements to block \u201cblasphemous\u201d tweets in Pakistan and delete or block accounts at the request of the Turkish and Russian governments may offer some clues to what Twitter in China \u201cwould look like and feel like.\u201d The Electronic Frontier Foundation\u2019s Eva Galperin condemned the company\u2019s recent concessions last week:<\/p>\n

We\u2019re sad to announce that Twitter has now caved. In 2012, Tony Wang, general manager at Twitter UK, called Twitter \u201cthe free speech wing of the free speech party,\u201d a phrase repeated by CEO Dick Costolo. But two years, a massive expansion, and an IPO later, that claim rings hollow, especially to people in Russia and Pakistan.<\/p>\n

[\u2026] There are two ways Twitter\u2019s actions are disappointing. First, Twitter has no employees or assets in Russia, so it should not have to comply with a Russian court order at all. And the order isn\u2019t even about a Russian account\u2014it\u2019s a Ukranian one. Worse yet, Pravy Sektor\u2019s account is plainly political. If Twitter won\u2019t stand up for political speech in a country where independent media is increasingly under attack, what will it stand for?<\/p>\n

[\u2026] Supporters of Twitter\u2019s position may point out that Twitter is still the least-bad actor in this space. Facebook regularly complies with government demands for censorship, as does Google. But being the least-bad actor is not good enough. By setting a high standard in defense of free expression, Twitter was once the leader in a race to the top. There\u2019s no pride in sinking to the bottom along with everyone else. [Source]<\/p>\n

Tech In Asia\u2019s Paul Bischoff, meanwhile, focused this week on magazine app Flipboard, whose primary service has been blocked in China in favor of a more harmonious localized version.<\/p>\n

Flipboard\u2019s head of business development says the app now has 100 million registered users worldwide, but wouldn\u2019t reveal how many active users are in China. \u201cChina is our second biggest market, and it\u2019s becoming more and more important to us,\u201d he said, noting the size of Flipboard\u2019s staff in China has grown considerably since the local version was released in 2011.<\/p>\n

When asked if censorship is a concern for Flipboard\u2019s future business in China, Alexander replied, \u201cI think we made mistakes like every other American company that comes to China, and we\u2019ve learned.\u201d [\u2026]<\/p>\n

[\u2026] \u201cWe\u2019re very careful with following all the right guidelines,\u201d Alexander said, \u201cI\u2019m not really worried about censorship.\u201d [Source]<\/p>\n

From :http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/05\/might-twitter-china-look-like\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In brief comments at Code Conference on … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[110],"tags":[37,1343,1348,285],"views":1315,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1101"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1109,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101\/revisions\/1109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}