Twitter does not want you to share this link on TV piracy

Some of the most vile neo-Nazis, racists and homophobes on the planet are on Twitter. But do not even think about discussing the topic that seems to be taboo on the platform: the piracy of TV shows.

Twitter has removed many tweets over the weekend related to stories on TV episodes aired online. And Twitter has even deleted tracking tweets on deletions.

TorrentFreak, an information site regularly dealing with piracy and copyright, published on April 8 an article on the fact that episodes of several television series like American gods, The 100, Bless this mess, and Knightfall had fled online before they were supposed to broadcast. Episodes are filigree filters that are usually given to television critics. TorrentFreak called the escape "one of the biggest violations ever committed".

It appears that the tweets were removed in response to a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) removal notice filed by the Starz television network, according to email notifications sent to journalist Mathew Ingram and reviewed by Gizmodo. Tunes of starz American gods but does not have all the shows that have leaked online.

Notably, the original TorrentFreak report was not linked to pirate sites hosting the shows. But that did not stop Twitter from removing several tweets from people who linked with the TorrentFreak story. Even a tweet from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been deleted.

The original report used screen shots such as the one above to illustrate the fact that the films were programmers, with the watermark of a person named "Jessica Silvester". The message "Only for projection purposes" is also visible a watermark for the 1XBET game site. It's not uncommon for game sites to join content pirates to get more visibility for their name.

To make things even more complicated, Twitter has removed tweets that refer to an April 11 TorrentFreak follow-up story in a process called "Kafka-esque" by Ingram.

"I think this is an exaggerated interpretation of the DMCA and I am disappointed that Twitter has agreed to remove my tweet – and a similar tweet from the EFF – when they are obviously not violating," the journalist said. Mathew Ingram in Gizmodo via Twitter DM. "And I think it's extremely disturbing that Twitter removes tweets containing links to news articles."

Twitter confirmed the receipt of an email from Gizmodo yesterday, but did not answer any questions about the deleted tweets. If you try to find the offending tweets online, they are listed as "hidden."

Yes, copyright holders have the right to issue DMCA notices when their content is used inappropriately. But, again, TorrentFreak was only reporting piracy, not linking it. If this is the case, it is a dangerous precedent for copyright on the Internet.

Gizmodo will update this article if Twitter answers us.

[TorrentFreak]