Sky News joins the anti-social media brigade
A new policy from Sky News bars reporters from posting anything other than work-related content on Twitter, and even forbids them from retweeting anything that doesn't come from a Sky account. As with so many other similar policies, this completely misses the point of social media.
Do users really care whether the web is open or not?
Open-web advocates may long for a revolt against walled gardens, but in the end the success of a social network is determined by the willingness of users to put up with its restrictions. For Facebook, that is both its biggest strength and its biggest weakness.
The NYT needs a lot more than just a paywall
The New York Times has signed up over 300,000 people to its digital subscription plan, but that doesn't even come close to making up for continued declines in ad revenue. A new CEO is going to have to think creatively about where the paper goes now.
Sorry Dick, but Twitter is definitely a media entity
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said on Monday that the company is not a media entity, but in most of the ways that matter, it clearly is -- and that's why its recent decision to selectively censor content that flows through its network is so important.
Gaiman: SOPA and PIPA are on the wrong side of history
Author Neil Gaiman said in an interview this week that the media industry is trying to "put genies back in bottles" with laws like SOPA and PIPA, and the Internet has fundamentally changed the landscape, just as Gutenberg's invention of the printing press did.
How much should we trust our new information overlords?
The news that Twitter will be censoring tweets has reinforced for many the fact that our freedoms exist at the mercy of the companies whose networks we are using -- and being used by. How much trust should we have in these new information gatekeepers?
Twitter will censor tweets, but will try really hard not to
Twitter says it has implemented a new system that will allow it to remove tweets from specific countries if required to do so by law, but that it will try hard not to do this, and will be as transparent as possible if it does.
Memo to media: Supply and demand are out of your hands
Too many media giants are happy to have a little disruption, provided it doesn't change the supply-demand equation they have always relied on. But the reality is that this equation has already been blown to smithereens, and they had better figure out how to adapt.
Google’s new privacy policy: Should you be concerned?
Is Google's new privacy policy another sign it has broken its promise and is becoming more evil? Or is the fuss over the new version -- which will allow the search giant to share data among its various services -- a tempest in a privacy teapot?
Why Google and Twitter need to kiss and make up
The back-and-forth between Google and Twitter over Google's new social-search results is only the latest manifestation of a much deeper problem with the relationship between the two former partners. The reality is that both sides need each other more than they would probably like to admit.
Facebook picks fight with Google over who is more evil
A team of developers led by Facebook's Blake Ross has launched a browser plugin called "Don't be evil" that they claim presents Google's search more fairly -- but is this a war that Facebook can win, or just a chance to make cheap PR points against Google?
MegaUpload case proves we don’t need SOPA or PIPA
Not only were the authorities able to shut down MegaUpload and arrest its founders without either SOPA or PIPA, but the facts of the case raise even more red flags about what the government would be able to do to similar services under those proposed laws.
