(It would be bit like when a Judge finds someone guilty but only fines them a dollar in recognition that the letter but not the spirit of the law that’s been upheld.)

Might want to adjust your metaphor a bit:
http://www.infowars.com/arkansas-judge-awards-passenger-1-after-excessive-cop-tasering/

What they should have done is played up the extent to which users would *know* they’d been censored – and made this the real focus of what they were doing. Instead of everyone reporting “Twitter to censor tweets by country” they could have been reporting “Twitter sticks it to illiberal countries – Will tell users if they’re forced to censor their tweets”.

(It would be bit like when a Judge finds someone guilty but only fines them a dollar in recognition that the letter but not the spirit of the law that’s been upheld.)

Twitter could have passed this off as being the cunning Robin Hoods of internet censorship, instead of giving off the whiff of the Sheriff of Nottingham’s lackey.

And of course, Twitter only has to honor censorship demands in countries where it has offices and assets; Lower Pottsylvania can require removal of every mention of Glorious Leader, but unless Twitter has an office there, it can safely ignore the orders

Now let’s find a country where freedom of speech is fully enforced to harbor our offices and assets… oh, wait: ACTA, extradition treaties, rendition secret agreements…