Skip to Main Content

Twitter Denies Censoring WikiLeaks on Trending Topics

Twitter on Monday denied that it is censoring WikiLeaks-related terms from its list of trending topics. WikiLeaks's Julian Assange also announced that his Swiss funds have been frozen.

December 6, 2010

Twitter on Monday denied that it is censoring WikiLeaks-related terms from its list of trending topics.

"Twitter is not censoring #wikileaks, #cablegate or other related terms from the Trends list of trending topics," the company said in a statement.

The rumor first got started when several blogs noted that WikiLeaks was not showing up in Twitter's list of trending topics, despite being in the news almost constantly for the past week.

"Our Trends list is designed to help people discover the most breaking … news from across the world, in real-time," Twitter continued. "The list is generated by an algorithm that identifies topics that are being talked about more right now than they were previously."

In May, Twitter changed its algorithm so that its trending topics list featured topics that were immediately popular, not necessarily things that were being mentioned the most. At the time, popular topics like singer Justin Bieber would sit on Twitter's trending list for months on end, but the change lets Twitter "capture the hottest emerging trends and topics of discussion on Twitter [that] are the most interesting," Twitter said at the time.

Twitter said there are a number of factors to consider when it comes to the trending topics. "Sometimes topics that are popular don't break into the Trends list because the current velocity of conversation (volume of Tweets at a given moment) isn't greater than in previous hours and days," the company said. "Sometimes topics that are genuinely popular simply aren't widespread enough to make the list of top Trends. And, on occasion, topics just aren't as popular as people believe."

The term "WikiLeaks" and other WikiLeaks-related terms are not showing up in the worldwide or U.S. Twitter lists, nor are they featured on the list for London, where editor Julian Assange is rumored to be hiding out, or the list for his homeland of Australia. As many people are aware, however, Twitter's trending topics can be a mix of the relevant and inane. For example, the worldwide list currently features "VnezuelaLovesBiebs" and "#noonelikesyoubecause."

If you search for "WikiLeaks" on Twitter, however, the suggestion section atop the micro-blogging site does provide a link to Wikileaks's Twitter page.

In other WikiLeaks news, Assange announced Monday that the Swiss Bank Post Finance has frozen his defense fund and personal assets, and designated Assange as a "high profile" individual. WikiLeaks and Assange lost $100,000 euro in assets, he said. When recently, the site also lost another $60,000 euro.

"The technicality used to seize the defense fund was that Mr. Assange, as a homeless refugee attempting to gain residency in Switzerland, had used his lawyers address in Geneva for the bank's correspondence," Assange said in a press release.

WikiLeaks still has public bank accounts in Iceland and Germany.