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The site plans to withhold tweets that violate censorship laws in specific countries, but says it will provide transparency about its actions. It will clearly mark tweets that are withheld, and they will only be restricted within the affected country.

Twitter is partnering with anti-censorship site Chilling Effects on the initiative, and users can visit the Chilling Effects website for more information about specific tweet takedown requests and activity.

Twitter hasn't yet exercised its tweet-blocking ability, but its increasing global reach makes doing so a matter of time.

"As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression," Twitter wrote on its blog.

The social site admitted there will be some countries where laws governing freedom of expression are so restrictive, they will render Twitter unable to exist there. However, in nations that regulate specific aspects of free speech, such as France and Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content, the new tool will allow Twitter to avoid being banned entirely for a few tweets containing objectionable content.

Twitter is trying to avoid the fate of Google's social network, Google+, which China blocked just one day after its limited release last summer. Under Twitter's new policy, specific tweets the Chinese government finds objectionable could be taken down and marked as blocked, while the country could still enjoy the rest of the site's content.

The company may also be headed down a slippery slope, however, particularly in countries looking to clamp down on social media access in order to minimize the role of tweets and social network postings in future uprisings similar to last year's Arab Spring.

In Syria, for example, protestors avoid Facebook and Twitter out of fear the government will track their posts to learn about planned protests or meetings and be there to arrest whomever shows up.

By giving governments the right to say what shows up on Twitter and what doesn't within their country's borders, Twitter could both hamper protesters' use of Twitter to organize their efforts and give nations that engage in censorship more power to restrict citizens' free speech. The result is a difficult balancing act between Twitter's desire for growth and critics that say the policy change colludes with repressive governments.

Twitter says its main goal is to "keep the tweets flowing." But, as the site continues to wrestle with foreign governments over freedom of speech issues, it may have to make exceptions to that rule in some areas to preserve greater global access and expression.