The resulting backlash over the Adams affair and the general discomfort about the Occupy situation highlight perhaps the only real check on Twitter’s ability to control its users: the users themselves. All of our lingering confusion over the First Amendment means the market for these services speaks very strongly when those values appear to be infringed, even if Twitter has the right to do whatever it wants. “I think it’s a welcome idea for Twitter to say that it chooses to take First Amendment values seriously,” says Harvard Law School professor Jonathan Zittrain. “We don’t tell people they can’t speak because of the political content of their views.” The EFF’s Timm agrees, noting that “Twitter is the best of the large services. They try to stay true to the First Amendment as much as possible.”

via Tweets of rage: does free speech on the internet actually exist? | The Verge.