GreenBkk.com Tech | Twitter declares, 'The tweets must flow'

Twitter declares, 'The tweets must flow'

By Charlie White, Mashable

With more than 100 million messages transmitted each day, Twitter says it would be impossible to monitor every one.

(Mashable) -- While protests rage on in Egypt, Twitter called for free expression and transparency in a manifesto published on its blog.

Co-written by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and the company's General Counsel and former Google lawyer Alexander Macgillivray, the post casts Twitter as a trustworthy messenger, relaying information between hundreds of millions of users, and only refusing to do so if such messages are illegal or spam.

With more than 100 million separate messages transmitted each day, the company says it would be impossible to monitor each and every one.

In addition, Twitter vows to refrain from revealing private information about its users, and when it is required to do so by law, it will attempt to notify those users before handing over their information to the authorities.

As longtime dictators and despots blame Twitter as an instigator of their dwindling power, Twitter reminds us that it's only a mirror on such troubled societies, "providing the tools that foster these discussions."

However, that mirror is turned into an enormous global amplifier in situations such as those in Egypt now and Tunisia earlier this month.

Meanwhile, Twitter communication is nearly a moot point in Egypt, where there were some reports of cellphone service returning, but internet service was still shut down today, according to The New York Times. (However, some have figured out clever ways around the problem).

Read Twitter's manifesto in its entirety here, and let us know in the comments what you think.

Credit: CNN (www.cnn.com)