Twitter leads the way. To censorship, or transparency about censorship? After the San Francisco company announced yesterday that it will censor tweets on a case-by-case, country-by-country basis, disappointed tweets and reactions abound. After all, Twitter has had a reputation as the social network that gives the most leeway to its users, such as allowing them to use pseudonyms, for example; CEO Dick Costolo once proclaimed Twitter as “the free speech wing of the free speech party”; the company fought a government gag order in order to inform those with WikiLeaks ties that the U.S. government had subpoenaed their information. (See As U.S. pursues WikiLeaks, must Twitter turn over user data?)
But Twitter is a business. As the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Jillian York writes, “Twitter is not above the law. … Just about every company hosting user-generated content has, at one point or another, gotten an order or government request to take down content.” In its blog post/announcement, Twitter says that as it expands its new policy is simply about staying within the limits of different countries’ laws, and says “we have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why.” Twitter general counsel Alex Macgillivray told Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing that “this is not a change in policy.” In addition, he shot down rumors that the policy has anything to do with the Saudi prince’s $300 million investment in Twitter, which was announced last month. (See Quoted: Twitter’s royal investor has faith.) Meanwhile, Dave Copeland writes for ReadWriteWeb that by allowing users to change their country settings, Twitter is actually providing them with a workaround.
Washington Post, Jan 23, 2012
Former Taliban officials find new role
By Kevin Sieff
KABUL — A Toyota Corolla full of former Taliban officials and armed guards stopped in front of Abdul Salam Zaeef’s home in western Kabul this month, awaiting the man who helped direct the Taliban from Pakistan before his capture and detention at Guantanamo Bay.
With Zaeef inside, the car sped off for President Hamid Karzai’s palace, where the once-fugitive Zaeef has lately become a frequent guest.
As Karzai weighs the prospect of talks with Taliban officials in Qatar, Afghanistan’s government has invited Zaeef and others with long-standing ties to the Taliban to offer guidance and help mediate.
Afghan leaders have been disappointed by their lack of access to Taliban negotiators who have been speaking directly to the United States. But they have found an alternative in former insurgents — many of them imprisoned and later reintegrated — who live only a few miles from the palace gates.
And so Zaeef — a broad-shouldered, bearded man who was once the Taliban’s ambassador to Pakistan — has seen an unlikely resurgence in his diplomatic career. This time, he’s trying to convince the government, and anyone else who will listen, that the Taliban is serious about peace if its preconditions can be met.
“They are ready to discuss peace,” he said in an interview. “They have received the message from their leadership, and they are ready.”
Attempting to bridge divide
Thousands of former Taliban members have put down their weapons in recent years. Most are low-level fighters whose peace deals with the government were unceremonious and of little political consequence. But a few, like Zaeef, were offered early release from prison if they agreed to work with the government rather than against it.
Members of this small group have been having occasional conversations with Karzai for several years. But with peace talks drawing closer, they are meeting with top Afghan officials much more often, according to the president’s spokesman, Aimal Faizi.
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His large home holds the religious paraphernalia that he amassed as a Taliban leader, but there are hints of a new, secular life in the capital: an Adobe Photoshop user guide, files from his nascent real estate business and a newly purchased iPhone that, every once in a while, lights up with an incoming call from Karzai’s palace and blasts his ringtone, the Muslim call to prayer.
“I’m proud of what I did before,” he said before answering a recent call, “and I’m proud of what I’m doing now.”
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