Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking companies no longer have to worry about a mandate that would have required them to share…
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Politwoops shutdown raises questions about Twitter’s rules
Can social websites protect their users while still allowing outside groups to hold politicians and other public figures accountable for their statements?…
Read MoreJudge halts movie industry-backed probe against Google
A federal judge has agreed to put the brakes on an investigation into Google by Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood after the company complained…
Read MoreWhy we need social media: Press freedom is still declining rapidly
The latest global index from Reporters Without Borders shows that freedom of the press is in decline in a majority of the countries surveyed -- including the United States -- which makes alternative forms of media such as Twitter more important than ever…
Read MoreGoogle advisory council: Right to delist should only apply in EU
To help it handle the EU ruling that forces it to delist certain results about people, Google assembled a team of expert…
Read MoreEmily Bell: Social networks and journalists need to work together
Former Guardian digital editor and Columbia University professor Emily Bell says social platforms like Facebook and Google need to work with journalists and media organizations to protect principles like free of speech and freedom of the press…
Read MoreHow social media affects protest movements: It’s complicated
In a new research paper, sociologist Zeynep Tufekci argues that while social media can empower dissidents and make it easier to organize, governments are getting smarter -- and the same things that make such tools useful also have a downside…
Read MoreTango down: Bangladesh blocks messaging apps amid protests
Bangladesh temporarily blocked the messaging apps Viber and Tango on Sunday after intelligence agencies asked the country’s telecoms regulator for help in…
Read MoreTwitter fights Turkish order to block newspaper’s Twitter account
Twitter says it plans to fight a court order from the Turkish government that is trying to force the company to block or remove the account belonging to a Turkish newspaper, after the paper tweeted information the authorities say could compromise national security…
Read MoreGoogle fight over Mosley orgy shows censorship creep in Europe
A rich, powerful man won a series of court victories in France and Germany that arguably helped pave the way for Europe’s controversial…
Read MoreMark Zuckerberg champions free speech while Facebook censors it
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has posted public statements on his personal page about his commitment to free speech in the wake of the killings in Paris last week, but the behavior of his company often says something very different…
Read MoreEU response to free speech killings? More internet censorship
In the wake of this week’s terrorist attacks in Paris, which began with the killing of 12 people at the offices of…
Read MoreOnline outlets showed Hebdo images but offline media didn’t. Why?
Almost all of those who published offensive cartoons from the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo were online media outlets, and virtually all of those who refrained from doing so were traditional media. Why the difference?…
Read MoreThe Interview will reportedly be screened on Christmas Day
The movie that Sony at first wouldn’t release, then claimed it wanted to release, may get released after all. The Dallas Morning…
Read MoreBelarus blocks news and commerce websites over currency fears
Fearing a run on banks and shops due to a faltering currency, the authorities in Belarus have blocked several news and e-commerce…
Read MoreIt’s official: Sony caves to hacker threats, pulls The Interview
In a clear victory for North Korea, Sony has responded to terrorist threats by officially cancelling the December 25 release of “The…
Read MoreGoogle to close down Russian engineering operations
Google is closing its Russian engineering office, according to a report in The Information. Google’s Russian engineers will be offered jobs in other…
Read MoreWeb report: Online surveillance and censorship are getting worse
Mass online surveillance and censorship of what people see on the web appear to be getting worse, according to the latest Web…
Read MoreGitHub gives in to Russian censorship demands following blockage
GitHub has agreed to censor some of what its users post, in order to mollify the Russian authorities. Russian laws forbid web…
Read MoreIt’s been a bad year for internet freedom
Internet freedom has declined around the globe, once again, in 2014. A new report out from Freedom House shows that 36 of…
Read MoreRussia reportedly blocks blogs of terrorism analysts
Russia is reportedly blocking blogs that provide independent analysis of jihadi activities. On Monday the Belgian historian, researcher and writer Pieter Van…
Read MoreWhy the EU’s “right to be de-linked” should not go global
Google and other search engines should remove links to out-of-date or unwelcome personal information from all of their search results around the world – not just in specific European countries – when people in Europe ask for them to be taken down and there's no good reason not to, EU data protection officials have decided.…
Read MoreFacebook is bowing to more government censorship requests
The number of official takedown requests that Facebook has consented to in Pakistan has ballooned by 1,000 percent in the past year -- and free-speech advocates say the social network is too quick to cave in to government demands for censorship…
Read MoreBBC uses “collateral freedom” system to bypass Chinese censorship
The campaign group Greatfire.org says it is sneaking Chinese-language BBC content behind the Great Firewall using its CDN-based mirror site approach.…
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