“Alexander Macgillivray, Twitter's chief lawyer, says that fighting for free speech is more than a good idea,†Somini Sengupta wrote for The New York Times. “He thinks it is a competitive advantage for his company.â€
That explains why Mr. Macgillivray spends so much time and money “going toe to toe with officers and apparatchiks both here and abroad,†she wrote, including wrestling with “Indian government officials seeking to take down missives they considered inflammatory.â€
“We value the reputation we have for defending and respecting the user's voice,†Mr. Macgillivray said in an interview here at Twitter headquarters. “We think it's important to our company and the way users think about whether to use Twitter, as compared to other services.â€
It doesn't always work. And it sometimes collides awkwardly with another imperative Twitter faces: to turn its fire hose of public opinion into a profitable business. That imperative will become far more acute if the company goes public, and Twitter confronts pressures to make money fast and play nice with the governments of countries in which it operates; most Twitter users live outside the United States and the company is already opening offices overseas.
That transformation makes his job all the more delicate. At a time when Internet companies control so much of what we can say and do online, can Twitter stand up for privacy, free expression and profitability all at the same time?
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