Egypt shuts down Internet in record time

Los Angeles Times January 29, 2011 With a few phone calls to the likes of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, the Egyptian government  stymied the social media, effectively limiting its role in organizing the demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak. -db

Internet a battleground in Tunisia

Wired Commentary January 14, 2011 By Nate Anderson of Ars Technica Citizens are using the social media in quest to oust the corrupt government in Tunisia, and the government is fighting back, blocking websites and using the Internet to identify activists. -db

Courtney Love defamation trial looms

Courthousehouse News Service January 12, 2011 By Chie Akiba A California court will hear some spirited argument in the upcoming defamation trial of Courtney Love for an online message calling a fashion designer an “asswipe nasty lying hosebag thief.” Love’s attorneys will argue that the message was protected opinion and also true in its essence [...]

Wired magazine commentator commends Twitter for First Amendment stand in WikiLeaks subpoena case

Wired Analysis January 11, 2011 By Ryan Singel Writing in Wired, Ryan Singel said Twitter made a wise move that upheld the First Amendment after receiving a federal government subpoena for records of a number of people connected to WikiLeaks. Twitter went to court to get the gag order lifted then informed the people their [...]

Hackers wage war on behalf of WikiLeaks

Hackers have disrupted the Web sites and services of a number of companies including MasterCard, Visa and PayPal for withdrawing services in support of WikiLeaks. -db New York Times December 8, 2010 By Ashlee Vance and Miguel Helft A hacking free-for-all has exploded on the Web, and Facebook and Twitter are stuck in the middle. [...]

Free speech: Teachers sue Florida school district for social media policy

Some Florida teachers are suing their district in state court on the grounds that a proposed Manatee school district policy violates their free speech rights by prohibiting social media postings of negative comments or photos about the district, employees or students from home or work computers. -db Bradenton Herald November 13, 2010 By Richard Dymond [...]

Media law expert questions college ban on athletes’ tweets

Public and private universities are increasingly limiting players’ use of social media that one expert says constitutes in most cases illegal prior restraint and a violation of their free speech rights. -db Citizen Media Law Center Commentary November 9, 2010 By Eric P. Robinson An exercise we did Friday at University of Nevada, Reno’s High School [...]

Tweets against Senator Harry Reid not reflected in vote

Tweets were 54 percent against Senator Harry Reid and only 12 percent against his opponent, tea party hopeful Sharron Angle, but Reid still won the Nevada senate race by four or five percentage points. -db Los Angeles Times Commentary November 3, 2010 By Patrick Goldstein There’s nothing quite as much fun as watching the election [...]

Judge orders Google to reveal name of YouTube cyberbully

Google has 15 days to reveal the identity of a person who posted comments calling a Columbia MBA graduate a “whore,” “a shank,” and “an old hag.” -db New York Daily News October 15, 2010 By Jose Martinez Columbia MBA graduate Carla Franklin went after Google in August in an attempt to unmask her online [...]

Florida school board considers restricting teachers’ online speech

The Manatee County School Board in Florida is debating a policy that prohibits teachers from posting comments on sites such as Facebook or Twitter that would put the district, students and teachers in a “negative, scandalous or embarrassing light.” -db Student Press Law Center September 28, 2010 By Chelsea Keenan FLORIDA — The Manatee County [...]

Twitter becoming powerful, pervasive news platform

Twitter is not only allowing journalists to broadcast news instantaneously to thousands of people but it also puts the means of publishing in anyone’s hands. -db GigaOM Commentary September 8, 2010 By Mathew Ingram There’s been plenty of debate lately about whether Twitter has become “mainstream” or not, but examples continue to pile up of how [...]

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 [...]

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) – [...]

Middle Eastern countries censoring Internet

Last week Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey acted to block more content from the Internet. Afghanistan is installing filters on the categories of alcohol, dating and social networking, gambling and pornography. -db Electronic Frontier Foundation Opinion June 26, 2010 By Shari Steele Yet another country has decided to shut down key parts the Internet. Kathleen Reen [...]

Government agency launches website to help public monitor oil spill

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has launched GeoPlatform.gov, a data-rich website to enable the pubic to track the spread of the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico and find out other crucial information. -db NextGov June 14, 2010 By Bob Brewin The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration launched a slick and data-rich website on [...]

Pennsylvania attorney general dropping subpoena of Twitter for critics’ identity

The Pennsylvania attorney general has decided not to subpoena Twitter for the identity of critics of his successful conviction in a recent political corruption investigation. In asking for the subpoena, Attorney General Tom Corbett was attempting to find out if one of the critics was the man convicted of corruption to determine if the man [...]

Blogger challenges subpoena ordering Twitter to reveal his identity after critical posts on Pennsylvania politician

A blogger on Twitter is challenging a grand jury subpoena seeking his identity after he posted criticism of Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett. The subpoenas are usually limited to criminal cases, and the grand jury did not say what crime the blogger committed. -db Wired May 19, 2010 By David Kravets An anonymous blogger critical [...]

Robust journalism emerging amid reports of failed newspapers

Even though newspapers are filing for bankruptcy and laying off reporters, new technology is delivering on its promise to provide the public with more news and in greater detail than ever. -db First Amendment Center Commentary April 18, 2010 By Gene Policinski Headlines — ironically, given this subject — have proclaimed for some time that [...]

Library of Congress to make Twitter posts available to public

The Library of Congress is launching am ambitious effort to acquire and archive all public Twitter posts starting from the beginning of Twitter in 2006. It will collect more than 50 million Tweets a day and make them available to the public after a six-month period. -db NextGov April 14, 2010 By Emily Long The [...]

Courtroom bans on social media spreading across United States

The U.S. court system is rapidly adopting rules against the use of social media in the courtroom. Jurors are increasingly instructed to stay off Facebook and Twitter and refrain from using the Internet to research cases. -db Online Media Daily March 10, 2010 By Laurie Sullivan No tweeting or status updates in court or deliberation [...]

New access to social media may precipitate change in Iran

After the U.S. Treasury Department decided to exclude social media services from sanctions against Iran, there is hope that these services will help Iranians  effect political change. Iran is a special case in that nearly half of the population uses the internet. -db Citizen Media Law Project Commentary March 11, 2010 By Arthur Bright Anyone who [...]

International internet freedom gets boost in latest regulations proposed by Obama administration

The U.S. Treasury Department announced changes in its sanctions against Cuba, Iran and the Sudan which allows internet service to these countries even when they are under U.S. sanctions. -db Electronic Frontier Foundation Commentary March 10, 2010 By Danny O’Brien The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced on Monday key amendments to the [...]

Bandwidth problems threaten to curtail military’s social networking

The Pentagon is allowing the troops to use such sites as Facebook and Twitter, but it may be difficult for them to actually sign on since, especially in places like Afghanistan, bandwidth is limited. -db The Hill March 1, 2010 By Tony Romm Trouble with the Pentagon’s strapped Web network could threaten its new decision [...]

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 [...]

Olympic athletes allowed to twitter

Despite the International Olympic Committee’s confusion about blogs and journalism, it appears that Olympic athletes will be allowed much greater freedom to tweet from the games than previously thought. -db Citizen Media Law Project Commentary February 9, 2010 By Arthur Bright Rejoice, all ye Olympian fans, the International Olympic Committee (“IOC”) has said that its athletes [...]

Olympic athletes in winter games confused by rules restricting social media

Olympic social media rules bar athletes from acting as reporters since they lack accreditation, but they can twitter in the first person and send reports from the sidelines. -db Wired February 5, 2010 By Mark McClusky American skier Lindsey Vonn, one of the potential stars of the 2010 Winter Olympics, told her nearly 35,000 Twitter [...]

Libel suit based on tweet dismissed

A Illinois state court dismissed a defamation suit against a tenant who complained by tweet to 20 of her friends that her apartment was moldy. The judge ruled that the tweet was too vague to qualify as libel. -DB Citizen Media Law Project Commentary January 21, 2010 By Sam Bayard Andrew Wang of Chicago Breaking [...]

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 [...]

Twitter emerges as vehicle for publicizing final health care bill

Congressional leaders announced that the final health care bill will go online on Twitter 72 hours prior to its consideration on the floor, a move that firmly establishes the social media as a significant player in providing public assess to the nation’s business. -DB Sunlight Foundation Opinion January 15, 2010 By Paul Blumenthal So, Nancy [...]

Bloggers replace mainstream media in covering local government

Bloggers using Twitter and Facebook are filling the void to cover local government meetings, taking the place of mainstream media suffering losses of revenue as the internet takes its share of ads. -DB MediaShift January 14, 201 By Steven Davy Traditionally, newspaper reporters were dispatched to cover the mundane proceedings of a local government in action: [...]

Prop 8 hearing: Strict enforcement of laws against assault needed rather than curtailing TV coverage

A Citizen Media Law Project blogger argues that the Supreme Court should recognize that it is against California law to assault witnesses and that not televising the proceedings will not protect witnesses in what promises to be a widely publicized event. To allow the broadcast on YouTube would provide a boost to freedom of the [...]

Diet doctor sues Kim Kardashian over alleged libelous twitters

Observers think that Dr. Sanford Siegal has a weak case in his libel suit against celebrity Kim Kardashian. Siegal created the “Cookie Diet” and subsequently posted that Kim Kardashian had lost weight using the cookie diet. Siegel sued over Kardashian’s tweets that stated it was false that she was on the cookie diet and that [...]

India all a-twitter as government ministers clash over use of social media

An Indian junior minister got a reprimand from his boss for using Twitter to criticize the government’s immigration policy, provoking discussion about open debate in a democracy and the role of electronic media. -DB The Los Angeles Times December 31, 2009 By Mark Magnier NEW DELHI – It takes a lot fewer than 140 characters [...]

Written word alive and well

A study done by the University of San Diego and other universities revealed that Americans are reading far more words as the new technologies take hold. With the advent of TV, reading was in decline but has rebounded, tripling from 1980 to 2008. -DB Wired Commentary December 29, 2009 By Eliot Van Buskirk Conventional wisdom [...]

Media project publishes guide to live-blogging in courts

The Citizen Media Law Project has published a guide to live coverage in courts using the social media. Since not all judges allow electronic devices and local laws sometimes prohibit the devices, it is important to know how to avoid legal problems in live-blogging or tweeting in the courtroom.-DB Citizen Media Law Project December 10, [...]

EFF sues to force government to provide records of spying on social networks

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, working with the UC Berkeley law school, has filed suit against a number of federal agencies who have not responded to Freedom of Information Act requests for information about their surveillance of social networking sites. -DB Electronic Frontier Foundation Press Release December 1, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO – The Electronic Frontier Foundation [...]

First Amendment panel finds promise, pitfalls in social media

By Donal Brown The panel on journalists and social media at the First Amendment Coatition Assembly offered wise advice and a few emphatic warnings, chief among them: everything a journalist puts up on Twitter or Facebook or other social media is public. Speaking at the assembly October 24 in Los Angeles on the panel entitled [...]

London: Barrage from Twitter, Goggle, Wikipedia forces disclosure of analysis of toxic dump in Ivory Coast

The New York Times October 19, 2009 By Noam Cohen A British court issued an injunction prohibiting the publication of an analysis of toxic waste dumped in the Ivory Coast by a contractor hired by Trifigura, a shipping company. Trafigura claimed the analysis confidential communication meant for their lawyers. But as one media law expert [...]

Pro sports’ bans on Twitter could provoke First Amendment protest

Professional athletes filling time around games by tweeting whatever was on their minds, some of it critical, are now facing rules restricting their freedom. Questions  remain about whether the bans violate the free speech rights of the athletes and whether they even care enough to challenge the bans. -DB The Dallas Morning News Opinion October 5, [...]

FBI searches house of man arrested for using Twitter to coordinate protests in Pittsburgh

The FBI last Thursday spent 16 hours searching the Queens house of a man arrested in Pittsburgh on September 24 at the Group of 20 summit. The man, who claims to be an anarchist, is facing criminal charges of helping  protesters avoid arrest after they were ordered to disperse. -DB The New York Times October 5, [...]

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