Twitter wants to change the world while some politicians are trying to silence it.
In an interview with the BBC this week, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams said “Our goal at Twitter is to be a force for good… We have a fundamental belief, having worked on this type of thing for 10 years, that the open exchange of information has a positive impact on the world.”
Bold words, but some politicians don’t agree with that line of thinking. In the UK, a number of local councils have recently banned live tweeting from meetings.
Tameside Council caused a minor storm this week when it restricted use of Twitter-based reporting of meetings to journalists from three newspapers. As The Guardian reported, one local blogger was actually asked to leave the public gallery after trying to tweet from his iPhone.
Meanwhile, Trafford Council went the other way and banned accredited journalists from reporting via Twitter from a controversial planning meeting on Thursday. Trafford’s Councillor in charge of planning decided the Manchester Evening News couldn’t live-tweet the meeting despite a high level of public interest. Oddly, they did nothing about a number of members of the public tweeting there.
Some councils are even banning themselves from using Twitter during meetings.
Hypocrisy?
It seems some politicians don’t know what to do about Twitter. The irony here is that in this general election year in the UK, politicians will be turning to it like never before to engage with voters. Many councils happily use Twitter accounts to put out official messages, but social media is a two-way street and you can’t use it as a promotional tool while simultaneously banning the public from using it to report on what you’re doing.
Although many may disagree with their stance, these councils have the law on their side in banning Twitter. Tameside Council told journalist Sarah Hartley:
“…there is no right to attend a council meeting and make a transmission of the meeting whilst it is taking place, or to make recordings of any meeting, this applies to all Local Authorities. Therefore the Council is obliged to consider specific requests to use media such as ‘twitter’.”
It’s understandable that in days gone by this rule made sense. However, hiding behind an outdated law in a changing world is no excuse. Only when councils learn to relax and allow will Evan Williams’ dream be realised and an “open exchange of information will prevail”.
[Image credit: Steve Garfield]
The Parlement in the Netherlands has also banned twitter within the chambers.
Politicians are mostly an-alphabet puppets and i doubt if they are aware of what twitter is. They read notes that others write them so please ….. forgive them.
As someone who lives in a metro city in the US, I get to see people typing and staring into their phones all day long. You don't need to be connected constantly. Nobody cares that you just bought a starbucks coffee and now you're standing at the bus stop. On another note, most newsmen wait until they have an entire story to report. It will still be news in an hour.
Interesting read – thank you. I think/hope/trust that 'we the people' will use our Twitter to such an extent, that it will be a powerful tool for getting instant, reality-reporting …rather than the filtered versions currently used.
@tinalouiseUK
An interesting & not surprising read. Thanks Martin for the heads up.
I have wise word to using social network (from Google : Don't Be Evil) and i would always to make it.
Who knew that the Tameside and Trafford Councils would have something in common with Hugo Chavez
BULL!!!! TWITTER SWINGS WAY LEFT, AND TWITTER SOLD OUT ITS USERS, BASICALLY PATRIOTS!! TO A FED INSTITUTUTE, THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WITHOUT EVEN WARNING THEIR USERS FIRST!!! THAT EVERY WORD THEY SAID IS FEDERAL RECORD!!!! FOREVER!!!!!!! WHITEHOUSE REQUESTED ENEMIES LIST????
DID THEY GIVE US AN OPT OUT??? NO!! WARNING??? NO!!! FUNNY THEY CANT GIVE US OUR OWN, OLDER TWEETS CLAIMING NO RECORD, YET THEY GAVE EVERY WORD..TO LOC!!!! FROM DAY 1 2006??? SURE!!!
NOW THEY HAVE CLOSED DOWN REQUESTS 2 FOLLOW, ON MOSTLY PRO RIGHT AMERICANS!! PRETENDING ERROR, TO FORCE PRIVATE ACCOUNTS OUT TO BE PUBLIC TO CONTINUE TO OPERATE AS BIG BROTHER FOR THIS GOVT!!!!! DOES THIS GOVT. NOW HAVE A CONVENIENT ENEMIES LIST, THANKS TO TWITTER?????? WE ARE AMERICAN PATRIOTS!!!! PROGRESSIVES ARE ENEMIES OF THIS COUNTRY!!! JUST SO YOU GET IT CORRECT. BUT EITHER WAY, YOU SOLD USERS OUT!!!!!!! WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION, OR RESPECTFUL NOTICE!!!!
AS FOR ONLY PUBLIC ACCOUNTS????? THAT’S ANOTHER LIE!!!!!
THE DELIBERATE ERROR ON THE SITE, PREVENTS EVEN PRIVATE ACCOUNTS FROM BEING EXCLUDED FROM THAT INTENTIONAL BROAD SWEEP OF DATA STOLEN!!! LOC REQUESTED???? WHY??? PROSPERITY? HISTORY??? SURE. YOU SOLD US OUT. BEFORE YOU EVEN TOLD US!!
YOU TOLD US AFTER YOU DID IT, AND THEN CHANGED YOUR TOS, TO ACCOMMODATE THAT OBVIOUS BREECH!! OF OUR PRIVACY!!!!!
THEY PLAY BOTH SIDES!!!! FEDTWIT DO YOU STILL RECORD ALL OUR TWEETS?????? THANKS FOR TELLING US LONG AFTER ..YOU ALREADY STOLE OUR THOUGHTS AND WORDS, AND GAVE THEM TO THE FEDS!! YOU SOLD US AND OUR PRIVATE THOUGHTS-TWEETS OUT!!! WITHOUT NOTICE!!! TO A PERMANENT RECORD IN A FEDERAL INSTITUTE!!! AT LEAST FACEBOOK, WOULD HAVE ASKED US, FIRST!!!! LETS SEE YOU MAKE MONEY ON ADVERTISING, WITHOUT REAL AMERICANS???