Way to go, Twitter and NTT

Twitter just announced that they’ve talked their network host, NTT America, into rescheduling some planned downtime because of Twitter’s role in the Iran election protests, possibly in response to pressure from users:

A critical network upgrade must be performed to ensure continued operation of Twitter. In coordination with Twitter, our network host had planned this upgrade for tonight. However, our network partners at NTT America recognize the role Twitter is currently playing as an important communication tool in Iran. Tonight’s planned maintenance has been rescheduled to tomorrow between 2-3p PST (1:30a in Iran).

Our partners are taking a huge risk not just for Twitter but also the other services they support worldwide—we commend them for being flexible in what is essentially an inflexible situation.

I’ve criticized Twitter before, but this is a quality move. It’s nice to see that tech companies don’t need a catchy motto to do the right thing.