One of the most recent problems in media today is that of free speech. The Guardian released an issue regarding free speech in where Twitter plays a significant role. In this article, The Guardian states that Twitter has banned the spread of certain news involving the beheading of a certain journalist as well as suspending users who upload any content regarding the death of the Journalist. As of recently, people had been uploading images and stills of the journalist James Foley death, more accurately speaking his beheading. Anything related to this video was banned by Twitter as some users found it brutal and complained. Youtube shows this event happening and warns people about the content they are about to watch. However, what is more important is the issues at hand against twitter. You see twitter banning this content goes against what it had previously upheld for years. We know this because “company’s former general counsel once characterized the company as ‘the free speech wing of the free speech party’ , this means that they leaned towards protecting speech, any kind of speech(The Guardian) . This free speech should include people being able to share any type of news video or anchor in their twitter account. Twitter taking the step against this type of materials goes against their long held battle on free speech. Unfortunately, twitter also allowed news outlets to share the news of James Foley’s death. This for example favors one group over the other and is quite contradictory after twitter had banned individuals for sharing the same exact content. Twitter by doing this judgement on news information is favoring one group over the other, which could be a problems because it is not treating everyone on equal terms. After all, the content is still the same, but somehow only news outlets can share the information. This could be a huge problem for twitter in the coming days.
