WikiLeaks threatens Twitter over 'cyber feudalism'
WikiLeaks threatened the social media giant Twitter over an alleged issue of creating 'cyber feudalism'. The organisation stated that the recent ban of news editor Milo Yiannopoulos from Twitter permanently, signals that Twitter is barring people from expressing their thoughts. WikiLeaks vowed to concoct a rival micro-blogging service to Twitter's, if the platform continues to exercise negative control over its users.
WikiLeaks is a not-for-profit organisation, founded in late 2006 by Julian Assange, an Australian citizen. The organisation was launched in Iceland, and created a database that included massive amounts of classified Government data, and related documents. WikiLeaks was infamous for its controversial news leaks surrounding US diplomatic documents, which later spurred the US Government's retaliation forcing Assange to seek diplomatic refuge in Russia.
Twitter started out as an idea to help people send short messages to each other over a platform, soon garnering public interest with over 310 million active users using its services at present. Twitter, currently headed by Jack Dorsey, was launched in July 2006 and started trading publicly in 2013. It has witnessed massive growth with its latest figures indicating over 800 million visitors.
Breitbart.com's tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos faced a permanent ban on Twitter after he supported racist trolls against Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones. Jones vowed to leave Twitter, but was back on the platform once the ban was effected. Yiannopoulos had earlier been accused of harassing other users, which had led Twitter to remove his verified status, although they had permitted him to continue tweeting.
"People should be able to express diverse opinions and beliefs on Twitter. But no one deserves to be subjected to targeted abuse online, and our rules prohibit inciting or engaging in the targeted abuse or harassment of others," the company said in a statement.
Recent market movements and revenue reduction for the social media platform has translated into a downgrade for the company's stocks, after research companies downgraded its stocks to to "sell" from "hold".
