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Recent actions by Google and Twitter show a willingness on their part to engage in some give-and-take as they push their efforts at Internet and social media dominance -- and find some governments pushing back. UPI/Mohammad Kheirkhah 

Recent actions by Google and Twitter show a willingness on their part to engage in some give-and-take as they push their efforts at Internet and social media dominance -- and find some governments pushing back.

The battle lines are forming between companies that want a free and open Internet as the pathway to business success and governments unhappy with freedom and openness in the hands of citizens.

In that battle, Google and Twitter have shown themselves willing to consider the occasional strategic retreat.

First, Twitter announced the ability to censor selected tweets within a country, as opposed to simply cutting off service entirely. Previously Twitter said it could only consider an "all or nothing" strategy.

Twitter tried to meet criticism by saying it would ensure more people would see tweets, not fewer.

The ability to mask or censor certain messages would mean only a small percentage of users would lose access, the company said.

"When we receive [a takedown notice]," Twitter Chief Executive Officer Dick Costolo said, "we want to leave the content up for as many people as possible while adhering to the local law."

Twitter's move was followed by an announcement by Google that its blogger sites can be blocked on a "per country" basis and it could -- and would -- block access to particular blogs in individual countries following a legal removal request from the government.

The decision, Google said, meant it would not have to resort to restricting worldwide access to a blog.

"If you visit a blog that does not correspond to your current location as determined by your IP address, the blogspot servers will redirect you to the domain associated with your country," Google said in a statement about the changes.

The decisions by Twitter and Google have been roundly criticized by free speech advocates and those favoring an open, uncensored Internet.

On the other side are governments that witnessed the impact the Internet and social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook had on the Arab Spring uprisings last year despite government attempts to control or shut down lines of communications.

Those protesters were quick to realize the vital resource offered by the Internet and mobile communications.

As one anonymous activist in Egypt tweeted, "we use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world."

Different regimes have attempted various strategies to stay in control of communications, including attempting to shut down the Internet entirely within their borders.

In China, which has a long history of censoring the Internet, new rules were announced that users of the country's popular microblogs would have to provide authorities with their true identities before being allowed to post.

So the dilemma for Twitter, Google and other social media entities remains a serious one: Do they allow a country's government to dictate the terms operations, or do they, under the principle of a free and open Internet, risk losing access to that country -- and its millions of potential users -- completely?

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SciTechTalk: Internet 'give and take'?

With so much attention focused on in highly restrictive countries such as China, Iran and Syria, the discussion of global Internet freedom often has tended to exclude the large class of more moderate nations with rapidly growing online populations with only a rudimentary set of laws and policies for the Web.

To the extent that the issue has received coverage in the mainstream press, the banner headlines have generally been reserved for the higher-profile flare-ups, recently seen in various Internet crackdowns amid the Arab spring uprisings or Google's 2010 standoff with China over online censorship.

But for Bob Boorstin, Google's director of corporate and policy communications, the greater uncertainty, both for U.S. businesses looking to new markets overseas and global Internet users, is found in the countries that have neither made forceful affirmations of online freedom nor implemented rigid, state-sanctioned censorship frameworks.

"The countries that I'm most concerned with in the next couple of years and that I think are most worth looking at are those in the middle -- the Brazils and the Indias and Argentinas and the Chiles and the North African countries and Southeast Asian [countries], like Indonesia, the Philippines. And the question I want to put on the table is which way are they going to go?" Boorstin said here at an event hosted by the Media Access Project, a nonprofit public-interest law firm and advocacy group. "That's the question that I'm focused on at the moment."

Clinton Shines Light on Internet Freedom

Shortly after Google went public with the revelations that it had been targeted by a series of cyber attacks emanating from China and announced that it would no longer comply with that country's Internet censorship rules, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made Internet freedom the subject of a major policy speech in January 2010, an issue she has revisited in subsequent remarks.

Secretary of State ClintonClinton cast the issue in terms of human rights and freedom of expression, and signaled that Internet freedom would become an integral part of U.S. foreign policy and diplomatic strategy.

Ben Scott, policy adviser for innovation at Clinton's office, called that speech a "sea change" that served to elevate Internet issues to a first-tier item on the global policy agenda.

"Virtually everyone has woken up to the fact that the Internet matters to foreign policy," Scott said on Tuesday. "This is an issue that no one can ignore anymore."

But that broad acceptance that the Internet matters is not to be mistaken for anything close to consensus on the subject, Scott said.

He acknowledged that there is a rudimentary understanding that "technology is a catalyst for economic growth" throughout the international community, but added that he regularly meets with senior government, academic and business leaders around the world who do not believe that the Internet represents a net good, a starting point that is bound to prescribe a policy framework very different from that found in the United States and other countries where the Web is a generally open platform for expression.

"I think we have an erroneous tendency to project our own assumptions and our own familiarities in this debate on other capital cities. And we forget the fact that in most of these middle countries it's really only in the last two years -- thanks to the smartphone -- that significant percentages of their populations are online," Scott said. "These are new questions in a lot of these countries."

In India, for instance, the percentage of residents using the Internet still numbers in the single digits, according to Scott. Yet that country, with the world's second largest population and a thriving tech economy in cities such as Mumbai and Bangalore, represents a hive of opportunities for U.S. tech firms. At the same time, it has exhibited some worrisome signs of heavy-handed oversight that could mute the enthusiasm with which businesses eye the market.

Google and Facebook Comply

Just this week, word surfaced that Google and Facebook had each taken down certain content on their domains in India to comply with a court ruling that upheld a lawsuit against a larger group of Internet companies seeking mechanisms to block sensitive religious material.

"That's the kind of thing that we're going to run up against all the time. The question is will they come out in the defense of an open Internet," Boorstin said of his company's situation in India.

He explained that he is hopeful that countries still developing the building blocks of their Internet policy will ultimately land on the side of openness. Even if they are not compelled by a philosophical allegiance to free expression, the pragmatic understanding that a cross-border flow of communication through social media and cloud computing technologies will be an essential piece of the 21st century economy should be motivation enough to loosen their Internet policies.

"They will recognize that without that free flow of information they're going to stifle if not strangle their growth," he said.

Kenneth Corbin is a Washington, D.C.-based writer who covers government and regulatory issues for CIO.com.

Read more about government in CIO's Government Drilldown.

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Internet Freedom: Next Battlefields

Essex-based SEO agency SEO Positive has announced it will be looking into the possibility of incorporating up-and-coming social channel Pinterest into its social media management packages.

(PRWEB UK) 19 February 2012

SEO Positive has announced this week that it will be looking at ways to incorporate Pinterest setup and management packages into its social media marketing strategies.

According to a Referral Traffic Report compiled by content-sharing initiative Shareaholic, interactive bulletin photo board Pinterest is proving to drive consumers to websites alongside high-profile networks such as Facebook, Twitter and StumbleUpon. The SEO agency is committed to exploring new ways of increasing exposure for social media clients and will be evaluating the relevance and reach of the site in the months to come.

However, as Ben Austin, Managing Director explains, certain types of businesses are unlikely to experience success with Pinterest, so any marketing approach will need to be carefully analysed and considered before his company will provide the prospective client with quotes.

“Service providers may not find that investing in Pinterest is a worthwhile opportunity, whereas retailers will find it easier to engage and connect with users through imagery,” Ben states. “That said, we want to provide our clients with creative marketing ideas and strategies, so will be looking at ways to make the concept work for companies from any industry sector.”

The company actively encourages any businesses seeking for affordable social media solutions to get in touch with its specialist team for more information about the benefits of its comprehensive management and monitoring packages.

SEO Positive was established in 2007 in Chelmsford, Essex with the aim of bringing effective yet affordable online marketing services to companies from all industries and backgrounds. The company offers a huge range of services including search engine optimisation, Pay Per Click account management, social media marketing and online reputation control.

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Ben Austin
SEO Positive Limited
0800 088 6000
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SEO Positive Considers Incorporating Pinterest Into SMO Packages

18-02-2012 01:57 I created this video with the YouTube Video Editor (www.youtube.com

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February 17, 2012, 4:26 pm By BEN SISARIO

A revised indictment against the file-sharing site Megaupload was announced on Friday, with new charges against the site’s operators and some new details about the investigation. In addition to the five counts of conspiracy, money laundering and criminal copyright infringement in the original indictment last month, the seven men being charged — including Kim Dotcom, the site’s founder — face three new infringement charges and five wire fraud charges.

The new indictment, which was filed Thursday in Federal District Court in Alexandria, Va., adjusts some numbers, apparently after a closer review of evidence: Megaupload had only about 67 million registered users, not the 180 million earlier claimed, and only about six million users ever uploaded files. One of the most egregious users, named VV, uploaded 16,950 files over six years, yielding 34 million views and “numerous take-down e-mails, including 85 notices from one representative,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

Five of the seven members of what the government calls the “Mega Conspiracy” have been arrested after a raid on Mr. Dotcom’s mansion in New Zealand on Jan. 19, and are awaiting trial.

A Return to eMusic: Domino Records, an independent label whose acts include Animal Collective and Franz Ferdinand, has returned its catalog to the digital retailer eMusic after an absence of a little more than a year. Domino was one of three prominent indies, along with Merge and the Beggars Group, to withdraw from eMusic in November 2010. Those labels gave no clear explanation for their departure, but some hinted at the time that the recent arrival of the major labels to eMusic — long a haven for independent music — had altered the site’s business terms. Merge and Beggars remain absent, but in a statement, Adam Klein, eMusic’s chief executive, said, “While we are in conversations and have great relationships in the industry, we cannot give an update at this time.”

Ben Sisario writes about the music industry. Follow @sisario on Twitter.

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Digital Notes: New Charges, and More Details, in Megaupload Case