Twitter Censors Tweets: Undeniable Proof

October 13, 2011 · 79 comments

Say NO to Censorship

College Students Discussing Censorship

Twitter IS definitely censoring tweets and hashtags. This post includes proof.

I’ve been warning my readers that we must not be complacent and make the assumption that platforms we use online are unbiased.

We must pay attention to what happens when we invest our time on sites that are not under our own control.

Those who realize there is a great movement sweeping the world already know this:

Regardless of how many tweets are sent for hashtags related to
Occuppy Wall Street NONE of those hashtags ever trend
on Twitter locally – or  nationally.
AND ESPECIALLY not in the CITY concerned!!!

But THAT is NOT ALL! >> Last week I noticed a new message on Twitter:

Your account may not be allowed to perform this action. Try logging out and in again.

Are You an Advice-Taker or Advice-Tester?

Are You an Advice-Taker or Advice-Tester?

If you hate to read or have little time: Read just the text in red. It contains the most important points for every person.

If you are involved in small business, marketing or social media, also read all the gold text in gold boxes.

If you’re like me and you want to really understand what is going on, you will want to read through this three times:

  1. Read just the red text.
  2. Read just the gold text in gold boxes.
  3. Read it all.

That is what you may see when your tweets are being censored: and here’s the proof:

Dr Pepper Tweet Your Account May Not Be Allowed To Perform This Action
Tweet Twitter Would Not Post

When Twitter refused to accept that tweet, I removed the shortened link and did NOT get that message. So I did some further testing:

Testing With Specific Shortened Link

Testing With THAT Specific Shortened Link - Twitter refuses the Tweet

So I removed that link and sent EXACTLY the same tweet without the link and it went through:

 

Testing Tweet With Only That Shortened URL Removed

Removed ONLY that shortened URL and as you can see the Tweet is live on Twitter

I even briefly got the message “Your Tweet to @SEOCopy has been sent” but it didn’t stay long enough to be screen captured.

Twitter encourages brands to censor their tweets

Click This Image to READ: Twitter gives brands the ability to censor tweets!

WHY KNOWING WE ARE BEING CENSORING IS IMPORTANT:

I have been warning this day was coming for a very long time now. Few see how dangerous this is to our ability to make a living or even retain our freedom.

This is so important
I implore you not to leave this post
without understanding WHY.

When people have the illusion of freedom
and feel they have a voice
they are content to move ever closer
to the total loss of both.

The masses will tweet and feel they have a voice -
but if those tweets go nowhere -
they don’t!

They only have the ILLUSION they have a voice.

When important issues are being discussed online, people spend their most valuable assets: their time and money, working to spread the word.

When what we share is being actively censored -
and most will NEVER KNOW when that is happening -
our time and money are being stolen from us!

Every social network can easily censor what we say and do
and make that VERY DIFFICULT to detect by letting
YOU see what you shared but not showing it to anyone else!

You don’t have to believe me. You CAN find out for yourself. Simply ask your friends and followers to tell you if they saw something important that you shared with them.

WHICH SOCIAL NETWORKS CAN WE TRUST?

So it all comes down to which social networks CAN we trust? There is a simple way to tell. If the major media touts them and links to them they can’t be trusted. If they don’t, they might be trustworthy.

Particularly suspect are:

  1. Twitter
  2. Facebook
  3. Google+
  4. LinkedIn
  5. MySpace
  6. FriendFeed
  7. StumbleUpon
  8. Who else? Tell me in the comments and I’ll add them here.

What we really need is an independent social network.

They will have GREAT DIFFICULTY gaining enough users to be financially viable so we MUST all get behind any that surface. I know of one being developed which I will share as soon as they’re ready.

If YOU know of any let me know in the comments or by contacting me.

This goes deeper than Freedom of Speech.
Our Freedom of CHOICE is also at risk.

When you automatically use Google
we, the people, will ONLY see those Google chooses to grant visibility.

Small businesses become invisible to us and will eventually fail – taking away ever more choices until all that is left are Big Box stores – maybe even Big Box STORE – ONE company store because at that point they won’t need multiple brands.

That limits our choices in EVERY WAY
from where we shop to what products and services
we know exist to what information we can find -

And that information determines
WHAT WE BELIEVE IS TRUE.

Q: What do you do when one airline treats you horribly?

A: You switch airlines. Then when that one treats you horribly, you switch again. If the wealthy elite control each major airline they don’t care which one you use but you BELIEVE you have freedom to choose. DO YOU?

SUGGESTION: Switch to a regional airline.

Q: What do you do when your cell phone carrier does you wrong or is overcharging you?

A: You switch to another major cell phone carrier that is running a sale (oh – but you can only get that price if you accept a long term contract filled with tiny print you can’t understand. And when THEY do you wrong? You’re stuck with them for X amount of time until your contract runs out and then you can again jump out of one frying pan into another fire.

SUGGESTION: Switch to a smaller carrier. While they, too, are most likely RESELLING those same brands you are trying to escape, at least they MIGHT have customer service that MIGHT care about you. (Know of a small cell phone company you can recommend? Tell us in the comments – links to their Web site are OK.)

I included these two examples to open more eyes to the truth:

WE, the people, have never had many OBVIOUS real choices.
We have only been given the ILLUSION of choice!

We DO have CHOICES though
When we SUPPORT SMALL BUSINESSES

Our money recirculates in our communities
creating jobs and raising our standard of living.

By buying local WE can take control back.

Where you spend your money MATTERS.

Before the Internet, the wealthy few controlled everything we saw through their ownership of the major media, movie studios, newspapers, magazines.

Since the Internet, people like me and legions more can share what we’ve learned over a lifetime, and anyone can tune in and figure out what works for them.

The wealthy elite want their control back and they are doing everything they can to get it from imposing National ID systems to tracking devices to censorship.

WE are handing them that control
when we automatically believe that
ONLY what THEY HYPE is THE BEST

STOP giving them your time, money and attention.

CONNECT THE DOTS:

You MUST understand why all of this is important.

Your financial survival depends on it
So do your freedoms of choice, speech, travel, religious choice,
and even your freedom to not be imprisoned

even though you have done nothing wrong.

Think it can’t happen to YOU? You’re wrong! Our prisons are full of innocent people!

Most use Google so they only see what Google shows them.
How many businesses already don’t show up in search?
How much information is already difficult to find?

Will YOU notice when posts and stores disappear?

It is only a matter of time before search results are sanitized for our “protection”. [Read: cleared of people like me and any businesses that dared to compete with Google or their favored big brands.]

Google is already churning results. If you have access to any analytics, simply compare the keywords sending you traffic from Google prior to July 28, 2011 to the keywords sending you traffic since July 28, 2011.

Also compare your bounce rates before and after that date. Most will think “great, Google is still sending me traffic” and not realize that – just as they do with Distribution Fraud in AdWords – traffic that isn’t your target audience consumes resources and provides no benefits.

It HIDES the fact that even if your traffic stays the same you can no longer reach your target audience!

Churned results means you can NOT consistently get
targeted traffic from Google to your small business or blog.

The Google Panda updates that continue to be rolled out have already cost many businesses 1/3 to 1/2 of their traffic and incomes so far. As long as the customers they want to reach automatically use Google they’re toast. (Definition: “We’re toast” – slang expression meaning we’re getting burnt; we don’t have a chance.)

WHAT WE CAN DO:

  1. Use alternative search engines. I will put together a group to research and publish our options.
  2. Communicate DIRECTLY over the phone or through Skype or Instant Messenger (IM) chat. If you get a yellow triangle icon with an exclamation point (!) in it on Skype the other person DID NOT receive that message. Yahoo IM is more reliable and you can leave messages when someone is not online that they SHOULD receive later. DO NOT assume they received them though – see point 4 below.
  3. Assume that ALL COMMUNICATIONS are being recorded including email, phone, and chat.
  4. NEVER assume what you sent was seen or received UNTIL IT IS ACKNOWLEDGED. That goes double for email. See Closed Loop Communications for details.
  5. Save URLs to sites you visit that are important to you somewhere they can not be changed without your knowledge. I use Tomboy Notes and there are multiple backups of everything on this blog, but even those COULD be hacked.
  6. Seek out other bloggers like you and exchange direct contact information including phone numbers, email addresses, and social networks where they’re active.
  7. Be part of the solution. If you do nothing you are part of the problem and pretending it doesn’t exist will not change what happens to you if we don’t PROTEST CORRUPTION!

If people are ever going to wake up, they must do it NOW!
Stop being naive and believing media spin.
Do not let only what they tell you be what you believe is true!

The best way to connect with other bloggers is to install either
the free CommentLuv plugin or CommentLuv Premium.

Search for blogs in your niche and physical location, and GO COMMENT IN THOSE BLOGS. Follow the CommentLuv links from blog to blog. (Right click and choose open in new tab to open those you want to go visit.)

Communities of bloggers can be the solution to
how we find each other and stay in touch.
We MUST seek out and create LOCAL BLOGGING COMMUNITIES.

It is CRITICAL that we find each other NOW
Because it will become harder to use Social Networks
and Search Engines to find each other later!

POTENTIAL BIG PROBLEM:
WordPress is controlled by Automattic and part of ‘The Borg’
(The Borg is how I refer to all things controlled by the Wealthy Elite)
What that means is they COULD censor our blogs
even if they are on our own domains!

If you know others locally, if Internet access if interrupted for any reason you know people you can connect with physically.  All it takes is one blogger willing to lead a collaboration of local bloggers to effect change in your community.

Through supporting local businesses you also position yourselves to earn an income to support your blogging efforts. I personally mentor bloggers and am seeking Bloggers willing to Lead Blog Collaborations.

Together we can ensure that our freedoms are not taken from us!

WHAT TO DO IF YOU’RE FEELING OVERWHELMED:

Many will read this post and be totally overwhelmed.

RESIST the compulsion to just leave.

For your sake and the sake of every person on the planet, do one thing for me:

Go back to the top of this post and just read the red text and nothing else. That will give you the main points everyone needs to get.

If you’re up to it or you have a business or are involved in marketing or social media: go back to the top again and read just the gold text in gold boxes. That will give you additional MUST KNOW information.

Be CREATIVE.
If a social network censors tweets or shares
worded a particular way or that include a
specific URL, change the wording or the URL.

If you have questions, don’t be afraid. Just comment here – or if you don’t want to comment publicly, contact me.



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{ 78 comments… read them below or add one }

Brian D. Hawkins
Twitter:
October 22, 2011 at 4:12 pm

Hi Gail, I got this message from Twitter today when Trying to leave a comment using their retweet button: “Oops! A URL in your tweet appears to link to a page that has spammy or unsafe content.”

Here’s the screen print:
http://hotblogtips.com/images/keithb.jpg
Brian D. Hawkins would love you to read ..Blogging Tip – Walk Away | Quick Blogging Tip ThursdayMy Profile

Reply

growmap
Twitter:
October 27, 2011 at 10:09 pm

Hi Brian,

I haven’t seen that one yet but I suspect we’re going to be seeing it a lot. April Russo @app103 started a forum for sites that are being unfairly labeled as spammy or unsafe at False Positive Report.

You can imagine the impact on traffic and sales to any business that gets blocked in that manner. Did you let Keith know you’re getting that message on his site?

Reply

Linda Wise who writes about Cape Canaveral real estate October 21, 2011 at 1:06 am

These huge companies have all the power because we give them the power, they give out a service that we need and we are definitely inclined to use it because it will help our business a lot. We almost have no choice right now but to use it.

Thanks for opening our eyes to things that we need to see. Because it’s the truth and we should be aware of it.

Reply

growmap
Twitter:
October 27, 2011 at 10:28 pm

Hi Linda,

What we all need to be doing is using these major services to connect with each other and making sure we have multiple ways to contact as many people as possible.

Then as soon as one is ready we can all go interact at an independent alternative to what the wealthy elite control. There is a site working on an alternative to Twitter right now that I hope will be the solution we need.

Reply

Alex Zorach
Twitter:
October 20, 2011 at 10:55 am

If you want to encourage people to move from twitter, don’t just complain, present an alternative.

What about identi.ca? It’s an open-source, free software based microblogging platform that is much more transparent. It also features twitter integration so you can use it without losing any of your connections / contacts on twitter.
Alex Zorach would love you to read ..Cheap Tea: Loose-leaf Teas Offering Outstanding ValueMy Profile

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growmap
Twitter:
October 27, 2011 at 10:32 pm

Hi Alex,

I haven’t encouraged people to leave Twitter yet. I just want them to be aware that tweets are being censored. I will look into using identi.ca when time allows.

Reply

iPhone App Development October 18, 2011 at 5:03 am

If i use twitter for SEO purpose, then this censoring affect me. If so, what happened with my site?
iPhone App Development would love you to read ..Race of Mobile Applications ? Android Getting Ahead Of OthersMy Profile

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Danny who writes about Pole chain saw October 18, 2011 at 12:04 am

Funny how the west is always complaining that China censors, at least China doesn’t act like they don’t.
I can understand that a government sees that the voice of the people is becoming “too” strong and to keep the peace they would like to avoid people throwing oil on small fires, but sadly enough just as it would be great for me to not pay taxes, there are some things you can’t get away with.
How much they want to censor us, if they actually do this and keep doing this (it looks like it) then that will become a very big problem in the not so distant future.

Funny how we had that wikileaks stuff fighting for transparancy and now we go into even darker times.

*The word funny can be replaced to any word you see more fitting: Like sad, absurd, unacceptable etc.
Danny would love you to read ..Earthwise PS40008 8-inch Electric Pole Chain SawMy Profile

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growmap
Twitter:
October 27, 2011 at 10:46 pm

Hi Danny,

That wikileaks didn’t trend on Twitter during the time the major media was reporting on it is a pretty good indication that they DO censor trends.

The main thing I want to achieve by these types of posts is to get people to realize how much what they believe is controlled by their conditioning and how much what conditions us it controlled by a wealthy few with hidden agendas.

I am just thankful that because of Oath Keepers they haven’t imposed martial law and may not be able to any more.

Reply

Lionel who writes about Christmas Trains October 17, 2011 at 5:27 pm

These big companies have the power because we give them the power. We stop supporting local and regional businesses, then they get bought by the big corporations, lessening the competition and giving them more control. Support local, and the big companies can’t form or sustain themselves.

Reply

Kisha October 17, 2011 at 3:27 pm

Hopefully it will stop soon before many individuals will get affected with this issue. Thank you for sharing this informative post.
Kisha would love you to read ..My Forex Journey TipsMy Profile

Reply

DeliArious WebMA$Oist Conspywrightor with Multiple Nym Disorder Syndrome
Twitter:
October 17, 2011 at 12:26 pm

Even if to suppose that a webresource doesn’t censor at all (though any moderation is censorship and it is highly subjective), it is easy to impose externally.

Just read wikipedia’s Ineffective Counter-Notice Procedure

“Furthermore, ISP’s tend to remove allegedly offending material immediately, while there is a 10-14 day delay before the ISP re-enables access in response to a counter-notice. For example, if a website advertised an upcoming labor protest outside BlameCo, BlameCo could send a DMCA notice to the site’s ISP alleging copyright infringement of their name or logo a week before the protest. The site would then be disabled; even if the site’s owners immediately filed a counter-notice, access would not be re-enabled until after the protest, too late to be useful”
DeliArious WebMA$Oist Conspywrightor with Multiple Nym Disorder Syndrome would love you to read ..New Trends in Spamming: Spam Fused into Antispam Protection with Spamming Visitors Instead of Web SitesMy Profile

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Harry who writes about Coupons October 17, 2011 at 5:38 am

I can understand censoring or removing racist or illicit content , but Twitter seems to be going several steps to far and when does it stop?!
Harry would love you to read ..Eforcity – Free Shipping on $25 plus order at eForCity when using this Delivery CodeMy Profile

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mike December 29, 2011 at 11:34 am

Maybe the government can stop these guys.
mike would love you to read ..Sell Don’t Tell – Selling Tips that WorkMy Profile

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Noel Addison who writes about Web Development Ventura
Twitter:
October 17, 2011 at 1:43 am

The web has been an extension of our world today. It made communication, education and trade easily. However, it also possess the negative attributes that we have in non-virtual world, it is corruption. Even in the web the elite wants to rule and not willing to give the mass its absolute liberty.
Noel Addison would love you to read ..Selling Ice Cubes to EskimosMy Profile

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Anna October 16, 2011 at 3:11 am

I have never thought that Twitter can censor anything as there is so much to be censored so much. As for the censorships online I think that we should ahve some kind of it, but it should be limited and concerned the sites which are destructive and vulgar. But you never know in fact

Reply

growmap
Twitter:
October 17, 2011 at 11:48 am

Hi Anna,

I agree and that is why censorship can be so complicated. There are obscene and dangerous things we do not wish to see, but where to draw that line depends on the person.

I objected when a high quality business blog published a guest post with the f-word in the title and post content that was adult in nature. The readers of that blog thought I was crazy and the other people I know who are like me agree with me.

There is already a growing division between what people believe is acceptable and there will be blogging communities that are even more separate than they are now. I explain how I see the three decisions in the Blogging Ethics post I’ll put in CommentLuv in this reply.
growmap would love you to read ..Blogging Ethics: Time to ChooseMy Profile

Reply

Yosem Eduardo October 15, 2011 at 10:12 pm
Dawn
Twitter:
October 15, 2011 at 3:37 pm

I have been trying to text via my StraightTalk cell phone ows website and the live video feed. It will only let me send ONE message at a time. other wise it comes back with something like… “unable to send pu message at this time’ . the first group i sent message to, went through, however second link i tried to send failed.. and i tried again, same message.

No one likes to think theyre feeling paranoid. for the first time, i feel that way…and so stumbled upon your words and thought…. I thought so.

Reply

growmap
Twitter:
October 17, 2011 at 11:52 am

Hi Dawn,

I hope that what is happening will make more people aware that banking, multi-national Corporations, and the media are all controlled by the same wealthy elite.

That is why any or all of them will do what they can to try to minimize visibility – but they will do it in such a way that most will assume it is just a glitch and not by design.

If they censor everything or disconnect anything that is too obvious and people will notice. They could make 20, 50 or even 80-90% of messages and tweets disappear and how many would really notice?

How many Twitter users ever look for a tweet they sent? I do it all the time, but most people don’t so they would NEVER notice.
growmap would love you to read ..Why Small Business and Bloggers Can NOT Ignore Economic Decline and Occupy Wall StreetMy Profile

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Kristina L. October 15, 2011 at 11:15 am

A friend of mine has already driven my attention to the censoring issues she is experiencing with twitter, but since I am not having a twitter account still, I didn’t know what and how to help her out with it. I can only say I will make sure she reads your posts and understands more about the question that was bothering her.
Kristina L. would love you to read ..Naneu Coupon CodeMy Profile

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growmap
Twitter:
October 17, 2011 at 11:57 am

Hi Kristina,

You should be proud of your friend for noticing because most people will not. The problem we have is that it is nearly impossible to prove the censorship when it is intentionally unstable and erratic by design.

Have your friend read my post about Occupy Wall Street I’ll put in CommentLuv in this reply and both of you read my post probably on Wednesday that will be about food rights. It is VERY important.
growmap would love you to read ..Why Small Business and Bloggers Can NOT Ignore Economic Decline and Occupy Wall StreetMy Profile

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Rebi who writes about ElectronicsNewsLine
Twitter:
October 15, 2011 at 10:57 am

Big Shocking, unexpected…..
Rebi would love you to read ..IBM Produces First Working Chips that Mimic Human BrainMy Profile

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Ray who writes about dolphin hosting
Twitter:
October 15, 2011 at 4:39 am

Technology used to be exciting to me in the late 1990′s and early 2000′s. The last 5 to maybe even 8 years I don’t find it that appealing anymore. It freaks me out a lot more than it used to. Who knows what any website is up to or is doing, or big brother for that matter.
Ray would love you to read ..+1 Button in Google Adsense AdsMy Profile

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Alex Aguilar
Twitter:
October 15, 2011 at 2:56 am

When 90% of your online interaction goes through the same three or four large corporations (Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo) there is always the potential for malfeasance. People are always worried about the government spying on them or infringing on their speech, but most of us will happily sign our private information away to for-profit corporations without giving it a second thought. Think about how many EULAs you clicked “I Agree” to when installing software without considering what exactly it is you agreed to.

Here’s a recent example of what I mean: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/21/onstar_ecall/

OnStar GPS units monitor and phones home information of your car unless you specifically opt out of the service, even if you are not an Onstar subscriber and just have the unit in your car. They’ve since changed that policy, but it’s amazing what these companies will do if they think they can get away with it.

Reply

Carol who writes about Flyer Printing
Twitter:
October 14, 2011 at 10:45 pm

I can’t believe that Twitter will be censoring our tweets. I do hope that it is not true. But I was alarmed by your tweet test. We can find out more about this sooner. I admire your courage to post this topic.

Reply

Cristian Balau October 14, 2011 at 8:59 pm

Bravo! For having the courage to write and post this article. Censorship is everywhere this days and the sad thing is it started on the internet also, a place where everybody should have freedom of speech. I first seen heavy censorship been applied a couple of years ago on youtube and its all down hill from there, now it spreads to social networks…
Cristian Balau would love you to read ..How to Uninstall a ProgramMy Profile

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Car Accident Lawyer
Twitter:
October 14, 2011 at 5:39 pm

It is both amazing and horrifying what technology has done for society. For every new way to communicate there is a new method to suppress those oppinions.

Really though, the most likely censorship that could occur would be brand related much like with major news organizations being biased against reporting on a sponsor or political ally.

Reply

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