Twitter caves to global censorship, will block content on country-specific basis as required
by Xeni Jardin
EFF: “What Does Twitter?s Country-by-Country Takedown System Mean for Freedom of Expression?”
by Xeni Jardin
What Does Twitter?s Country-by-Country Takedown System Mean for Freedom of Expression?
from EFF.org Updates by eva
Yesterday, Twitter announced in a blog post that it was launching a system that would allow the company to take down content on a country-by-country basis, as opposed to taking it down across the Twitter system. The Internet immediately exploded with allegations of censorship, conspiracy theories about Twitter?s Saudi investorsand automated content filtering, and calls for a January 28 protest. One thing is clear: there is widespread confusion over Twitter’s new policy and what its implications are for freedom of expression all over the world.
Twitter Censorship Move Sparks Backlash: Is It Justified?
from Wired Top Stories by David Kravets
Internet scorn for Twitter’s announcement that it would censor tweets was swift and unforgiving. But even free-speech and other experts were divided on the service’s move that it might censor tweets if required by law in “countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression.”
Relax: Twitter?s New Censorship Policy Is Actually Good for Activists
from Mashable! by Josh Catone
Twitter to Censor Content in Certain Countries
by Zoe Fox
Zeynep Tüfekçi: Why Twitter?s new policy is helpful for free-speech advocates
Twitter Users Rally to Boycott Country-by-Country Censorship [VIDEO]
from Mashable! by Mashable Video
Twitter adopts country-specific censorship regime – how will that work?
by Cory Doctorow
As Xeni wrote, Twitter has adopted Google’s tactics for coping with legally binding censorship demands: from now on, when it receives a legal demand to censor a tweet, it will only censor that tweet for users in the country from which the demand emanates. Other countries’ users will still see it. Users in the censored country will see a notice that material has been censored. Additionally, all censorship demands will be archived atChillngeffects.org, a clearinghouse that tracks Internet censorship.
FBI to increase monitoring of Twitter and Facebook, seeks help building new surveillance app
by Xeni Jardin
From the Guardian: “Earlier this month the FBI quietly published a request for information (RFI) looking for companies that might help it build a new social network monitoring system looking at “publicly available” information. Contractors have until 10 February to suggest solutions.”
China: Not Worried About Twitter’s Decision to Self-Censor
Twitter’s announcement Thursday that the site will begin censoring content according to the relevant laws, regulations and policies of each country in which it has users was followed not only by American netizens, but discussed as far away as China.
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New Report: Tablet and E-book reader Ownership Nearly Double Over the Holiday Gift-Giving Period The share of adults in the United States who own tablet computers nearly doubled from 10% to 19%between mid-December and early January and the same surge in growth also applied to e-book readers, which also jumped from 10% to 19% over the same time period.The number of Americans owning at least one of these digital reading devices jumped from 18% in December to 29% in January. These findings are striking because they come after a period from mid-2011 into the autumn in which there was not much change in the ownership of tablets and e-book readers. However, as the holiday gift-giving season approached, the marketplace for both devices dramatically shifted. In the tablet world, Amazon?s Kindle Fire an d Barnes and Noble?s Nook Tablet were introduced at considerably cheaper prices than other tablets. In the e-book reader world, some versions of the Kindle and Nook and other readers fell well below $100. Report: Real Time Charitable GivingCharitable donations from mobile phones have grown more common in recent years. Two thirds (64%) of American adults now use text messaging, and 9% have texted a charitable donation from their mobile phone. Presentation: Transportation and privacy in the mobile ageHow do consumers feel about privacy in this new era of smartphones and how does that enter into their decisions about their transportation options? |
The MegaUpload Shutdown Effect
from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin
“With enough global data, you can actually see the traffic drop when the shutdown occurs.” Internet traffic analysists at Arbor Networks examined recent worldwide data flow and determined that Megaupload was taken offline just after 19:00 GMT on January 19. Internet traffic all over the world dropped in the two hours that followed. Top users of Megaupload were the US, France, Germany, Brazil, Great Britain, Turkey, Italy, and Spain.
Social Aspects Of Video Gaming Drawing In More Users & Revenue
from Social Media Week by Abigail Elise
Activision, the 33 year-old publisher of 2011?s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, recently announced that the title became the quickest entertainment product to reach $1 billion in international sales. Developed by Infinity Ward, the first-person shooter accomplished this feat in a mere 16 days. The title even edged out James Cameron?s 2009 blockbuster Avatar, which brought in sales of $1 billion in 17 days. This is somewhat of an impressive feat for a video game to accomplish, especially in a downtrodden economy.
Tensions Rise Over Facebook Timeline
from All Facebook by Jackie Cohen
The SOPA-PIPA Saga – Freedom of Speech vs. Net Neutrality
from Stanford Center for Internet and Society by Allen Yu
Many – like me – watched with great interest the defeat of SOPA and PIPA last week. The unpopular bills were defeated due in no small part to a well-coordinated high-profile protest by Internet companies like Google and Wikipedia. Millions flocked to sign and send petitions to denounce the bills.The rapid mobilization of public opinion surprised many, prompting many to pronounce in a new era of Internet-based mobilization.
One Year Later: The Arab Spring aftermath offers insight into trends and shifts in global digital activism
from The Meta-Activism Project by Kate Brodock
Egypt and the Arab Spring +1 Year
from The Meta-Activism Project by David Faris
Tahrir Square, January 25th, 2012
As hundreds of thousands throng Cairo?s Tahrir Square today in celebration, remembrance and continued vigilance, it is worth thinking through the implications of these remarkable events for our understanding of digital activism. My book on the Egyptian revolution is forthcoming, but if I could distill 5 important takeaways, they would be this:
‘HTML5 Please’ Helps You Decide Which Parts of HTML5 and CSS 3 to Use
from Wired Top Stories by Scott Gilbertson
A new website helps web developers decipher the often confusing world of HTML5 and CSS 3. Which elements are ready to use? Which are still not widely supported? And where can you find polyfills and fallbacks for older browsers? HTML5 Please has your answers.
Julian Assange to host Wikileaks TV show on Kremlin-funded Russian cable network
from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin
Live from house arrest, it’s the Julian Assange show
from FP Passport by Joshua Keating
Dutch Courts Join Pirate Bay Blocking Bandwagon
from EFF.org Updates by parker
Last week, at the urging of the Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN, the Court of The Hague ordered two ISPs to block subscriber access to The Pirate Bay. This is the second major attempt by BREIN to cut off users’ access to The Pirate Bay in the Netherlands. The first, a 2010 court ruling directly against the popular torrent site, was all but ignored by its founders.
Post- SOPA and PIPA, What?s Next? No Legislation, More Innovation.
from EFF.org Updates by julie
Last week?s historic protests made clear just what the tech community and Internet users are capable of accomplishing when they act together ? not only have the Protect IP Act (PIPA) and its House counterpart, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), been tabled for now, but in a welcome change, the public debate has increasingly considered the interests of Internet users and the opinions of those who actually understand how the technology works. Despite this, we keep hearing people ask: what?s next? And where do we go from here? Our answers: We don?t need legislation. And let?s keep moving innovation forward.
Google Works on Internet Standards with TCP Proposals, SPDY Standardization
from Wired Top Stories by Peter Bright (Ars Technica)
In an effort to speed up the web, Google is proposing a number of changes to the standards at the core of the internet — the Transmission Control Protocol, better known as TCP.
Anonymous Says It?s Not Attacking Facebook Saturday
from All Facebook by David Cohen
Social Marketing Trends to Look For in 2012: Predictions from Top Marketers
from social media vb by mlewis1
9 Countries Stand Between Facebook And Global Domination
from All Facebook by David Cohen
Anonymous Strikes: Symantec Says Stop Using pcAnywhere
from Mashable! by Zachary Sniderman
Nick Kristof: Facebook Subscribers Are More Valuable Than Twitter Users [VIDEO]
from Mashable! by Chelsea Stark
Your Google Information Is Worth up to $5,000 a Year to Marketers [VIDEO]
from Mashable! by Mashable Video
By now, you may have already checked to see what kind of person Google thinks you are (if you?re a femaleMashable reporter, Google apparently assumes you?re a middle-aged man). Google?s new, unified privacy policycan show you that, as well as how much we pay for the free services that provide Google with that data.
Megaupload: A Lot Less Guilty Than You Think
from Stanford Center for Internet and Society by Jennifer Granick
The recent Department of Justice decision to indict Megaupload for copyright infringement and related offenses raises some very thorny questions from a criminal law perspective. A few preliminaries: I?m responsible for the musings below, but I thank Robert Weisberg of Stanford Law School for taking the time to talk through the issues and giving me pointers to some relevant cases. Also, an indictment contains unproven allegations, and the facts may well turn out to be different, or to imply different things in full context.
Software piracy is vital to preservation
by Cory Doctorow
A PC World editorial by Benj Edwards recounts the history of “copy protection*” for software, and discusses how the cracks-scene, which busted open these software locks, is the only reason the legacy of old software is available today. There’s a trite story about the persistence of paper and the ephemerality of bits, which goes something like this: “We can still read ancient manuscripts, but we can’t read Letraset Ready, Set, Go! files from the 1980s.” This is only true in a very limited sense: if you can crack the copy-protection on R,S,G! you can run it perfectly well in a little Mac emulator on a modern computer, with lots of headroom to spare (the laptop I’m typing this on being approximately ten bazillion times more powerful than the last machine I used R,S,G! on). The business of software preservation and data longevity is a lot simpler than the story would have you believe** (assuming you don’t care about breaking the law to bust open copy protection and to get old copies of Mac System 6.x to run things on).
Mega Aftermath: Upheaval In Pirate Warez Land
from TorrentFreak by enigmax
7 Big Privacy Concerns for New Facebook and the Open Graph
from Mashable! by Lauren Hockenson
MegaUpload Alternatives See Surge in Traffic After Shutdown
from TorrentFreak by Ernesto
Copyright Industry Calls For Broad Search Engine Censorship
from TorrentFreak by Ernesto
It?s no secret that the entertainment industries believe search engines are not delivering enough when it comes to protecting copyright works. Just last month, the RIAA and IFPI accused Google of massively profiting from piracy, while putting up barriers to make life difficult for rightsholders.
Under Obama, the Freedom of Information Act is Still in Shackles
from EFF.org Updates by rainey
Three years ago this past weekend, on his first full day in office, President Barack Obama issued his now infamous memo on transparency and open government, which was supposed to fulfill his campaign promise to lead the ?most transparent administration in history.? Instead, his administration has been just as secretive?if not more so?than his predecessors, and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has become the prime example of his administration?s lack of progress.
Google and Bing Searches Help Us Pirate Music?
from Mashable! by Zachary Sniderman
Of course the public is going to pirate music when 80% of our search results for music direct us to illegal sites. That?s the claim made by a coalition of entertainment industry groups in a private document sent to the U.K. government.