The Twitter social network says it will block tweets in countries when the messages contravene local law. The tweets will remain visible in other countries.

In Germany for instance, promoting Nazi ideology is illegal. Tweets doing this will be blocked on German sites but will remain visible on Twitter sites elsewhere in the world.

Twitter hopes to be allowed to operate in more countries. However, critics fear that it is sacrificing freedom of expression in the face of demands being made by countries such as China.

During the Arab Spring, one of Twitter’s boasts was that it displayed all tweets, regardless of their content.

(mw/hs)

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