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February 8th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda In what may be the first test of Twitter‘s new international censorship strategy, Brazil is suing the company over tweets that warn drivers of police roadblocks and speed traps.
The suit, filed in a federal court in Goias by the attorney general’s office, is also going after users who compose the tweets. Brazil’s government is levying fines of $290,000 until Twitter changes course. The government charges that such tweets break the law and directly endanger “life, safety and property,” CNN reports. The roadblocks, the suit contends, may thwart purveyors of other crimes like car theft, weapons smuggling and drug trafficking.” A judge is currently reviewing the case.
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Reps from Twitter could not be reached for comment.
Brazil’s challenge comes less than two weeks after Twitter announced that it was giving itself the right to withhold content in certain countries, while making the content available in the rest of the world. Previously, Twitter’s only recourse for censoring such tweets was to remove the content globally.
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“We haven’t yet used this ability, but if and when we are required to withhold a tweet in a specific country, we will attempt to let the user know, and we will clearly mark when the content has been withheld,” read a post on Twitter’s blog on Jan. 26. Twitter expanded its relationship with Chilling Effects, an organization that collects and analyzes legal complaints about online activity, to update users about which posts were being censored.
In a follow-up post written the next day, Twitter expanded on the topic, stating that it would not filter posts going forward, but will only withhold content when the company determines a legal request is “valid and applicable.” Addressing the reason behind the timing of the announcement, the post continued, “There’s no magic to the timing of this feature. We’ve been working to reduce the scope of withholding, while increasing transparency, for a while. We have users all over the world and wanted to find a way to deal with requests in the least restrictive way.”
Is Brazil right in trying to censor such tweets or should the tweets flow regardless of the consequences? Let us know in the comments.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons
This story originally published on Mashable here.
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