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Twitter are going to push more censorship by selectively removing tweets. Is there a usable alternative that is not censored, and will likely stay this way?

The two major Twitter alternatives I know today are:

  • Facebook - can be used in a Twitter like fashion. I don't know if they censor, but I don't count on them not to do so in the future ... they're just too big and centralized.
  • Diaspora - this looks promising long term, but at the moment they're alpha (for a few years now), and they're usability is still not so great.

Are there other Twitter alternatives (micro-blogging platforms) that are actually usable at a practicle level (good UX, performance, looks ... everything that you want in a modern website), are not censoring posts, and are (relatively) not likely to do so in the near future (maybe because they're too small to get noticed)?

A self-hosted solution - i.e a website you need to install somewhere - is not a viable answer. I'm looking for something that is easy for end users who are not tech savvy.

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I'll have to look for links, but Twitter already "censors" tweets. They are just being more transparent and country specific about it. So really it is an improvement. Ah, here is the EFF's page on the subject - eff.org/deeplinks/2012/01/what-does-twitter’s-country-country-takedo‌​wn-system-mean-freedom-expression – dsolimano Feb 2 '12 at 13:02
@dsolimano - the question is whether Twitter will comply with takedown requests in countries where they don't have a real presense. If India or Egypt asks them to censor sensitive tweets ... what will they do? If they comply, they're "not as good as I'd like them to be", and I'd like to see an alternative that will not bow to governments if they can help it. – ripper234 Feb 2 '12 at 13:30

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I'll go out on a limb here and say identi.ca and it's open source and runs using the status.net platform. Also, I think it's a subjective question to ask:

Is there a usable alternative that is not censored, and will likely stay this way?

As we all know, anyone can change their TOS anytime they want. But this is probably the closest you may find to what you are looking for. Their are also some mobile apps such as for iPhone that can conenct to this.

As for UI? Well I would not say it's the best but you are also free to grab the source and tweak it with your own themes. Also have a look at their FAQ page, they actually mention Twitter by name.

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