Twitter co-founder: Freedom of expression is a human right

Twitter's Biz Stone argued that freedom of expression is a human right in a post on the company's blog, coinciding with Egypt's blackout of the Internet and cellphone service.

"Our goal is to instantly connect people everywhere to what is most meaningful to them. For this to happen, freedom of expression is essential," the company co-founder said in the post, titled The Tweets Must Flow. "Some Tweets may facilitate positive change in a repressed country, some make us laugh, some make us think, some downright anger a vast majority of users," Stone said. "The open exchange of information can have a positive global impact. This is both a practical and ethical belief." And, on a practical level, he said, the social media website doesn't have the resources to review each of the more than 100 million Tweets delivered on its site every day. "From an ethical perspective, almost every country in the world agrees that freedom of expression is a human right. Many countries also agree that freedom of expression carries with it responsibilities and has limits," Stone said.