14 DAY TRIAL // One of the big news stories of this morning was the Israeli attack on a flotilla of ships with aid goods for the Gaza strip. The attack left more than ten civilians dead and is sure to escalate tensions in the region. Like any big news story these days, it quickly fired up spirits on Twitter. The hashtag #flotilla became associated with the attack and, quickly, a trending topic. But, just as quickly as it had risen, it disappeared, leaving Twitter users to wonder what happened.
And in a politically charged situation like this, it was easy to jump to conclusions. Many wondered if Twitter hadn’t deliberately censored the topic. That would put the service in a very sensitive position. Twitter has tried to remain objective and open and regularly doesn’t intervene in the actual discussions. Its reputation as the emerging hub for information and news would be greatly damaged if it did.
Even so, the term was clearly removed from the trending topics. At the same time, the term ‘Israil’ remained a trending topic and still is at the moment. Israil is the Turkish word for Israel. This does make the move seem arbitrary and, even as some tried to link this to some conspiracy theory, it actually provides a great clue as to what happened.
Users quickly adapted and started using the alternative hashtag #freedomflotilla. At the moment, both #freedomflotilla and Gaza flotilla are trending topics, as well as the aforementioned Israil. And, judging by the activity around them, they’re likely to stay that way for a while to come.
So, what happened in the first place? While there are no official responses from Twitter, the US is sleeping at this time, the obvious explanation is that the service’s anti-spam filters kicked in automatically as #flotilla started picking up Steam. A rather generic term, and one used in the past on Twitter, it was mistakenly marked as spam and removed. The other hashtags didn’t set off the protection mechanism. Things have settled for now, but the situation does highlight just how important Twitter has become in these types of unfolding events.