Instruction in social media essential in journalism education

According to an online news pioneer, modern journalism students do not naturally see the social media as an important aspect of their professional repertoire. -db
MediaShift
August 30, 2010
By Alfred Hermida
Social media is such a new phenomenon that it is easy for someone to claim to be an expert in the subject. A search on Twitter [...]

Google ignites debate about privacy

Internet giant Google has sparked a fiery privacy debate this week by claiming future teenagers will need to change their names when they reach adulthood to escape embarrassing online pasts.
The Courier Mail
August 20, 2010
By Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson
In a warning experts have labelled hypocritical, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the company [...]

Google CEO: Online Anonymity Is Dangerous

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said anonymity on the Internet is dangerous, according to a report in the Huffington Post.
August 11, 2010
By International Business Times

In an interview with CNBC conducted at the Techonomy conference earlier this month, Schmidt offered an additional look at his views on online privacy and  anonymity, says the report.
Arguing [...]

China Renews Google’s License

Google said that Beijing agreed to renew the company’s license to operate a Web site in mainland China, months after Google said it would stop censoring search results in China. Google’s challenge of Beijing’s authority, which followed a series of sophisticated online attacks which Google said originated in China, put into question Google’s ability to [...]

How is Social Media Impacting Free Speech Rights?

While social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter increase their user base,  and search engines like Google continue to grow, many wonder if they will become the gatekeepers of information of the future. – SMD
Social Media and First Amendment
Commentary
July 6, 2010
By  Eric Kuhn, CNN Audience Interaction Producer
Aspen, Colorado (CNN) – The future of free speech [...]

Google looks for way to satisfy government and keep its service going in China

After the Chinese government objected to Google’s rerouting users to an uncensored site in Hong Kong, the company struggles to come up with another strategy to continue service in China. -db
The Wall Street Journal
June 29, 2010
By Amir Efrati and Andrew Batson
Google Inc. said it would change how Internet users in China access its search service [...]

China filtering rather than blocking Google

Observers are saying China is balancing its censorship policy with pragmatic needs to allow access to Google. -db

The Digital Daily Feed
June 15, 2010
By John Paczkowski
Rather than rejecting it outright, China is adapting to Google’s new approach to the country, working toward a balance that keeps access to Google.com.hk (a redirect from Google.cn) open while [...]

Google’s new Public Data Explorer raises questions about access to public records

With new search avenues,  journalists will have greater ability to search public records, but some public agencies across the country claim ownership rights to the records and are reluctant to make records available and even one state, Oklahoma, has raised millions in revenue from selling data. -db

Citizen Media Law Project
Analysis
April 28, 2010
By Helen Fu

In March, [...]

Google strikes blow for traditional journalistic values

Google’s decision to leave China rather than to allow censorship of its service, whether it likes it or not,  puts the company in the forefront in defending the free flow of information in the global market. -db
The New York Times
Commentary
March 28, 2010
By David Carr

Should we be surprised that the biggest fight over freedom [...]

Internet censorship: China may suffer long-term economic damage from closing down Google

Experts are saying that while China may feel the need to maintain control through censorship, but it may be doing itself great harm by allowing Google to abandon China and weakening the country’s links to the global economy. -db

The New York Times
March 23, 2010
By Michael Wines
BEIJING — This is a nation that builds dams, [...]

Google leaves China over differences on censorship

As expected, Google closed its Internet search service in China and began directing its users to the as yet uncensored service in Hong Kong. -db
The New York Times
March 22, 2010
By Miguel Helft and David Barboza

SAN FRANCISCO — Just over two months after threatening to leave China because of censorship and intrusions from hackers, Google on [...]

Chinese human rights activists mourn Google’s withdrawal from China

With Google poised to withdraw from China, there is recognition that China has dealt a blow to hopes for its gradual change to a more open and democratic society. db

The Washington Post
March 20, 2010
By John Pomfret
BEIJING — When Google announced that it would pull out of China if it had to continue censoring content, Zhao [...]

China set to continue censorship if Google abandons country

With a Google shutdown imminent in China, the government is warning Google’s partners that they must comply with censorship laws as the price of doing business in the country. -db
The New York Times
March 14, 2010
By Sharon LaFraniere

BEIJING — The Chinese authorities have warned major partners of Google’s China-based search engine that they must comply with [...]

FAC’s challenge to China’s Internet censorship weighed by US Trade Rep

Top US trade representative Ron Kirk says U.S. trade officials are in talks with Google and other Internet providers on FAC’s proposal to challenge China’s Internet censorship via the World Trade Organization (WTO). dh
U.S. weighing China Internet censorship case

(Related News: Q+A: Is there a WTO case against Chinese Internet censorship?)
(Reuters) – The United States is [...]

Google would welcome government support in challenging Chinese censorhip

Google wants the Obama administration to take China’s censorship of Google to the World Trade Organization as an unfair barrier to trade. -db

Bloomberg News
March 3, 2010
By Mark Drajem

(Bloomberg) — The Obama administration is weighing the merits of taking China’s censorship of Google Inc. to the World Trade Organization as an unfair barrier to trade, a [...]

Obama administration weighs FAC proposal to challenge China’s internet censorship in WTO

FAC Executive Director Peter Scheer describes the administration’s interest as “an important step,” and details FAC’s position on the issue:”We believe that China’s censorship of the internet is not only a human rights issue but also a free trade issue.
“That’s why FAC petitioned the US Trade Representative to challenge the firewall before the WTO. Google’s [...]

Obama should back up Google with more than rhetoric: The US should challenge China’s “firewall” before the WTO.

PETER SCHEER—The US government is not powerless to influence China’s policies for censoring the internet. As Google has taken extraordinary steps–bordering on corporate civil disobedience–to challenge China’s stranglehold on the flow of information to and among its people, the Obama administration has acted as though its hands were tied. In fact, however, the administration does [...]

Italian court deals setback to Google and internet freedom

Three Google executives were convicted of violating Italy’s privacy laws and responsible for posts by third parties, a blow to world internet freedom and particularly destructive to Italy’s participation in e-commerce. -db
The New York Times
February 25, 2010
By Rachel Donadio
ROME — Three Google executives were convicted of violating Italian privacy laws on Wednesday, the first [...]

Call for private industry to join U.S. government to promote Internet Freedom

EFF International Outreach Coordinator Danny O’Brien says Hillary Clinton’s speech on Internet Freedom was encouraging but that both governments and global companies have to redouble their efforts to establish world-wide standards for privacy and free expression. -DB

Electronic Frontier Foundation
Commentary
January 25, 2010
By Danny O-Brien

Secretary Clinton’s speech last week on Internet Freedom was an important step [...]

Blogger charges that U.S. government enabled Chinese hackers in Google case

National security technology blogger Bruce Schneier wrote recently that as part of their domestic spying campaign, the United States required internet providers to set up avenues for government surveillance used recently by some parties in China to breach the privacy of Google customers. -DB

Citizen Media Law Project
Opinion
January 26, 2010
By Arthur Bright

If you’re a regular user [...]

Chinese official criticizes Clinton for attacking China’s Internet policies

It didn’t take long for China to vehemently condemn Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech on China’s restrictions on the Internet. The official said in a post on the Internet that the speech would damage China-U.S. relations. -DB
Congress Daily
January 22, 2010
By Juliana Gruenwald
A Chinese official Friday blasted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech calling for [...]

Growing numbers scale China’s digital wall

Chinese citizens are finding ways to get around China’s firewalls after the government shut down pornography sites, blogs, online video sites, Facebook, and Twitter during the Beijing Olympics. -DB

The New York Times
January 16, 2010
By Brad Stone and David Barboza

The Great Firewall of China is hardly impregnable.
Just as Mongol invaders could not be stopped by the [...]

U.S. looking at issues of internet freedom after alleged Chinese cyberattack on Google accounts

After Google announced this week that hackers had tried to penetrate Gmail accounts in China including those of U.S. financial institutions and defense contractors, the Obama administration is considering their options in maintaining internet freedom. -DB
NextGov
January 13, 2010
By Aliya Sternstein
An alleged cyberattack by the Chinese government into systems operated by Google and other U.S. [...]

Cyberattacks on e-mail accounts of Chinese human right activists may force Google to quit China

Google may yet be forced to abandon the lucrative Chinese market after it gained access by agreeing to remove banned topics from its site. Hackers are attempting to invade the Gmail accounts of human rights activists along with the accounts of at least 20 large companies in the finance, technology, media and chemical sectors. -DB
The New [...]

Women’s group sues Google for bloggers’ defamation

The National Association of Professional Women is suing Google and three other Web sites for publishing bloggers’ statements that say the organization is a scam. -DB

Courthouse News Service
December 31, 2009
By Barbara Leonard

MINEOLA, N.Y. – The National Association of Professional Women claims Google and three other Web sites defamed it by allowing bloggers to publish defamatory [...]

Microsoft aggressive in competing with other vendors for open government market

Microsoft is using Sharepoint, Bing, SQL, and Azure to command a share of the traffic on open government while Google and Amazon are joining Microsoft in offering to host public data on their cloud services. -DB
Information Week
December 15, 2009
By J. Nicholas Hoover

With the open government movement in full swing and the Obama administration’s Open Government [...]

Major tech firms helping to advance open government

Adobe, Google and Microsoft are putting up both money and tech resources to help the Obama administration improve government transparency. -DB

OMB Watch
November 24, 2009
In addition to nonprofit organizations, educational groups, and individual advocates, corporations have recently begun to stake out positions in the ongoing open government dialogue. Among these private sector actors are Adobe, Google, [...]

YouTube provides way to connect news outlets with citizen journalists

YouTube Direct allows news agencies to gain access to content on Google’s video site uploaded daily by citizen journalists. -DB

Online Media Daily

November 17, 2009
By Laurie Sullivan
Google is unveiling a tool Tuesday that enables traditional television and online news agencies to create a platform to manage a bureau of citizen journalists. These mavericks capture life-changing events [...]

Google’s Fast Flip attempts to make reading news faster for public and more profitable for news outlets

Google is creating a news hub that allows viewers to read dozens of news articles quickly. They plan to share revenues with news providers from the ads that surround the articles. -DB
The New York Times
September 15, 2009
By Miguel Helft
SAN FRANCISCO — Google, long seen as an enemy by many in the news industry, is making a [...]

Blogger of venomous insults sues Google for outing her

Legal experts think that a fashion student’s suit against Google has little chance of success. She had anonymously called a model a “shank” and was subsequently identified by Google. -DB
San Francisco Chronicle
August 28, 2009
By James Temple
The blogger who anonymously tarred a fashion model as a “skank” before being outed by Google Inc. under court order [...]

Los Angeles plans to shift records from software to Google

The Los Angeles City Council will decide whether to shift e-mails and other public records from its antiquated records retention software to a Google service which experts say could improve public access. The police department is concerned that sensitive arrest records would not be secure in the event of the shift. -DB
Los Angeles Times
July 17, [...]

Information wants to be free, but the creators of information need to eat. Whether to charge for journalism online is fundamentally a question about legal rights.

By Peter Scheer
A debate rages in what remains of the newspaper industry over the question of whether papers should charge for their content online or, as most papers now do, give it away for free in hopes of reaping faster overall revenue growth through internet advertising. As more and more publications contemplate their own [...]

Senator Lieberman calls for misguided internet censorship, but the marketplace of ideas demands that free speech flourish.

Senator Lieberman calls for misguided internet censorship, but the marketplace of ideas demands that free speech flourish.

By Kelly Dunleavy
On May 19th, Senator Joe Lieberman sent a letter to the CEO of Google, with copies to many major newspapers, demanding that Google remove videos that feature Islamic extremists, or are produced by terrorist organizations, from its [...]