Is Twitter censoring #flotilla? | Hacker News Reader

Is Twitter censoring #flotilla?

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58 pointsertug48 comments

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

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.

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.

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.

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

I hope so.

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

Please be a technical error.

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

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.

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.]

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.

Changed the headline to a question.

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.

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

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

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.

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

I think it's just human.

"#flotilla not working on Twitter. Censorship or bug?" would be a better choice because it isn't a leading question.

Edit: Is a headline like "Did pressure from Apple cause a Foxconn employee to commit suicide?" neutral, or just avoiding a libel suit?

Anyone who knows anything about twitter is not going to blink an eye at "censorship or bug" - it's obviously the second.

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

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

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

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.

True. At that point it comes down to a level of trust. Do you trust the organization based on your knowledge and experience.

In this case I would say Yes. For many others I would say No.

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

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.

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

Edit: Safari on iPhone, located in Latvia.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

"Aid Flotilla" is trending in the UK.

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

but try clicking on it

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

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

Works for me intermittently; technical error.

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.

3) Some sort of technical issue or bug.

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.

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