Twitter: First Account Censored, Here’s Which One and Why

A peculiar piece of news is emerging from the chirping world of Twitter: for the first time since the microblogging social network came into existence, an account has been censored and therefore banned, albeit with some limitations.
The Twitter staff, completely new to such a measure, accepted the request from the German government and the Hanover police, specifically. It is understood that the suspended account is reportedly managed by a neo-Nazi group, apparently responsible for some violent incidents against immigrants.
The account “Besseres Hannover” (@hannoverticker) was closed through an operation of “selective censorship“: this operation is so named when a profile is obscured only within a specific territory, upon request from the competent authorities.
This is precisely what has just happened: the “Besseres Hannover” account is no longer accessible or visible in Germany but can still be consulted from any other country in the world.
The measure falls under the cases established last January, when Twitter announced it had adopted a sort of regulation applicable to situations where censorship is considered necessary.

At the time, the decision was not welcomed by ordinary users or by some international organizations, for fear that freedom of opinion and expression would thus be stifled, especially if governments not inclined to the free circulation of ideas were to request account closures.
Until today, the censorship tool had never been necessary: the closure of the “Besseres Hannover” account in Germany therefore represents the first such act.