Historical Context: Early Twitter was known for its commitment to free speech, encapsulated in its slogan "the free speech wing of the free speech party." However, over time, Twitter has faced numerous allegations and criticisms regarding censorship:

2010s: Concerns about censorship began to surface more prominently. In 2014, Twitter's transparency reports started showing a rise in government requests for content takedowns. By 2015, a study suggested that Twitter was under-reporting its censorship by significant margins, indicating over 250,000 censored tweets globally.

2018: Reports highlighted Twitter's compliance with government censorship demands, especially in regions like Turkey, where censorship was notably high.📷

2020: Political bias in censorship was a hot topic, especially with debates around Twitter's decision to label tweets from then-President Donald Trump as misleading. A Pew Research Center survey showed that many Americans, particularly Republicans, believed social media sites, including Twitter, were censoring political viewpoints.📷

Post-2022 (Elon Musk's Acquisition): After Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, there was a notable change in policy approach. Data suggested that under Musk, Twitter complied with 83% of government censorship requests, up from around 50% before his takeover, showing a shift in how the platform handled such requests.