international

Removal requests on the rise at Google

Google is reporting a 71 per cent increase in government and court requests in the UK to remove content from its services – including web search and YouTube. The figure accounts for the period between January and June, which saw 65 official requests for 333 items to be removed during that time. A home office spokesman told the BBC : “The government takes the threat of online extremist or hate content very seriously.” “Where unlawful content is hosted in the United Kingdom, the police have the power to seek its removal and where hosted overseas, we work closely with our international partners to effect its removal.” The search seraph and other popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have found themselves the subject of serious debate over privacy and freedom of speech, as governments and other regulatory bodies struggle to draw the line between what is appropriate and what isn’t online. The data, released as part of Google’s Transparency Report, is released twice a year. Google also gives governing bodies the opportunity to submit Government Requests, allowing them to flag any illegal or inappropriate content to Google and request it be restricted or removed. Google reported compliance with requests 82 per cent of the time. In contrast, Google also rejected requests to remove communities and profiles from its social networking site Okrut in India, following complaints that users were being critical of local politicians. Google spokesperson Stephen Rosenthal said: “As the report shows, we don’t simply censor on request, we ensure there is a case for removal.” Digg | delicious | Reddit | Google | Twitter | Sphinn | StumbleUpon | YahooBuzz | Facebook | Mixx | Contact bigmouthmedia

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Removal requests on the rise at Google

international

Facebook flushes away competing concerns

Adults living in Britain would rather live without a toilet than Facebook, a study recently found. Carried out in conjunction with its exhibition ‘Water Wars: Fight the Food Crisis’, the London Science Museum asked participants to rank the things they couldn’t live without. Exhibition manager Sarah Richardson described the results from the survey as “crazy”. “To say you can’t live without material things over drinking water is crazy. It seems having fresh drinking water is something that many of us take for granted,” she told The Daily Mail . The survey intended to demonstrate how important clean drinking water is, but when the results came in, there were some curious findings.

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Facebook flushes away competing concerns

international

Business leaders call for infrastructure investment

Business leaders have called on the government to invest more in re-developing Britian’s infrastructure. According to The Construction Index, a report published by the CBI and KPMG has urged officials to improve motorway and road links in order to better facilitate trade and to create new jobs for many skilled tradesmen , labourers and engineers. The report has shown that 58 per cent of businesses partnered by KMPG believe the UK’s infrastructure is worse than most other European countries. Last year, Britain was ranked 33rd on quality of infrastructure by the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report – ahead of Slovenia, Tunisia and Cyprus. Competitor nations France and Germany, however, ranked 10th on quality of infrastructure, prompting business experts to speculate that British industries may be at a disadvantage and losing profit to well-connected Continental competitors. As a result, both CBI and KPMG have encouraged the government to invest in Britian’s road and rail networks.

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Business leaders call for infrastructure investment

international

Wall Street Analysts Approve of Google Instant

The International Business Times reports that Internet industry analysts are reacting in a mostly positive manner to Google’s recent changes to their search engine technology. The publication pointed out that several leading financial analysts who watch the industry closely believe that Google Instant will help to increase Google’s leadership position in the space and differentiate itself from competitors like Microsoft Bing.

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Wall Street Analysts Approve of Google Instant