Twitter accused of censorship after “No God” disappears from trending topics | Breaking Tweets

Twitter accused of censorship after “No God” disappears from trending topics

Posted by Gracie Casella on 10/20/09 • Categorized as Religion, Social Media, Technology

A number of Twitter users are accusing Twitter of censoring content on the site after the trending topics “No God” and “Know God” combined into the single trending topic, “Know God.”

This happened even though the phrase “No God” had been tweeted far more times than the phrase “Know God,” and was even the top trending topic at one point.

Earlier today Rev Run Simmons, member of former hip hop group Run-D.M.C. and star of MTV’s Run’s House, posted this tweet causing a trending topic war between the phrases “Know God” and “No God”.

  1. Rev Run
    RevRunWisdom Know God… Know Peace. No God.. No Peace!. 20 Oct 2009 from mobile web

Many Twitterers are concerned that Twitter did indeed alter the trending topic list on the site by deliberately removing “No God” (which did result in plenty of spam and anti-religious remarks after some time):

  1. Tony Venom
    TonyVenom (Chicago, IL)Twitter a free speech eating monster & pusher of spam is here to regulate you. 140 characters of agenda. #TwitterFail #Censorship 21 Oct 2009 from Power Twitter
  2. Simon Bromfield
    morb01 (Chesterfield, UK) @Monicks i dont like religion but i hate censorship more, twitter was a place i felt safe to be atheist and free to discuss, now its church 21 Oct 2009 from Power Twitter in reply to Monicks
  3. Kelsey
    catgoesmeow (Undisclosed) This isn’t about “No God” or “Know God”; this is about #censorship Demand that Twitter rights this wrong! #censorship 21 Oct 2009 from web
  4. Hayden Matthews
    hpboomzz (Tennessee) how is it right to censor “no god” and change it to “know god” some people dont believe in god, some do. fight #censorship 21 Oct 2009 from web
  5. Clare Moran Heilman
    clamairy (Undisclosed) Twitter = censorship. For shame. no god 21 Oct 2009 from web
  6. DieselDragon
    DieselDragon (Farnborough, UK) Let’s keep the fight for free speech up best we can…If Twitter goes down, maybe they’ll learn a much needed lesson! :-) #censorship no god 21 Oct 2009 from web

Breaking Tweets has asked Twitter for comment and will post its response immediately, should one be received.

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  • loverevolver4
    I believe I was a victim of this, I had a post on twitter about the feast of tabernacles and for no reason it was deleted. Twitter is a great opportunity to spread the word of God but not if it is censored like this.
  • They should be more interested in reading some Bible Scripture pages since they don't talk the correct things about Him. I like though that they express their opinions and everyone has the right to an opinion. And I believe censorship is better is some cases than to pretend you really believe in God and actually don't.
  • Ron Jackson
    You can easily and quickly find out who, what or which tweets are being censored by Twitter.

    To see WHO Twitter Is censoring - Search for the user's name in Twitter Search. If that user only show ups in RTs, THEY ARE BEING CENSORED from Twitter Search and therefore from the Twitter Timeline.

    You can also use this same method to see if Twitter is censoring YOU: Tweet then look for yourself in Twitter Search. If your tweet (or you) can not be found, or If you (or that tweet) only show up in RTs, YOU ARE BEING CENSORED from Twitter Search and therefore from the Twitter Timeline.
  • uno_dos_tres
    They do the same thing every Thursday with #Supernatural.
  • ckanal
    Really? Explain. What is Supernatural?
  • CandyMaize
    Supernatural is a TV show that airs on the CW network on Thursday nights. Fans on Twitter trended the hashtag #LuciferIsComing to promote its Season 5 premiere .. only to have Twitter remove it (along with some God ones) from trending topics. The following week another hashtag campaign was attempted by fans. Ultimately it failed and in the process it truly seems as if Supernatural (#Supernatural) has somehow been "banned" from becoming a trending topic anymore. Supernatural fans have been discussing/complaining about this amongst themselves on twitter.
  • ckanal
    That's extremely interesting, and I can see how it's related to this story. I wonder what Twitter's explanation is for this. Would love to hear it.
  • Chooslyanne
    I get a Twitter error message when I click "Tweet This Post"...more censorship?
  • ckanal
    Hmm! Try retweet button at the top of the post or simply retweet @BreakingTweets on Twitter.
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