Yesterday Geopolitics Alert published an article breaking down the war in Yemen. We explained what’s happening, why it’s happening, and who is involved. Well Twitter blocked the article. It didn’t contain any graphic or objectionable content, which means coverage of Yemen is probably what’s being censored.
This is the message we saw after our Tweet containing the article in-question had been re-Tweeted:
So what’s the reason behind this? If the person re-Tweeting had marked the Tweet as sensitive content, there would still be a way to view the content. In this situation, the Tweet was entirely unavailable. So either someone reported the post for containing sensitive content or Tweets about Yemen from independent sources are being singled out and suppressed.
Twitter recently announced their plans to increase other areas of censorship on the platform. Most stories have focused on the banning or blocking of extremist accounts from neo-Nazis or Islamic State militants. But could their censorship penetrate deeper than that? Could Twitter’s quiet agenda be to censor news from war zones like Palestine and Yemen?
It wouldn’t be out of character. Facebook for example is already cooperatingwith Israeli authorities in order to determine what should be censored on the platform. Facebook even allows the Israeli government to use their platform for the purpose of singling out Palestinian activists who speak out against occupation.
So is our “sensitive” Tweet an honest mistake? Or is it part of a larger plan to censor dissidence around the globe? The latter certainly fits with the overall trend.
Do you live in an area like Yemen, Kashmir, Syria, Palestine, and so on? Have you experienced censorship from social media platforms? Feel free to tell us about it.
