Agree re our tradition of free speech, but it's never been absolute, and nor should it be. I'm sure you know about shouting 'Fire!' in a crowded theatre, and, abused as they are, laws on defamation have their place.

An interesting point here is how such limits are enforced. A complaint to the police is possible, but in this case we can appeal to the commercial contract between Twitter and its users - which is what the argument given appeals to - very sensibly, IMHO. There's nothing - except their organisational competence - to stop the BNP from trying to set up some alternative to Twitter, so they can't reasonably say they are being banned from public discourse, but it's hardly going to be as effective. Of course there will probably be chat rooms where they, and previously the likes of Anders Breivik would have communicated among themselves - and that's where I'd be happier for police time to be focused.[/quote]