The Internet - The first Worldwide Tool of Unification ("The End of History")

" ... Now I give you something that few think about: What do you think the Internet is all about, historically? Citizens of all the countries on Earth can talk to one another without electronic borders. The young people of those nations can all see each other, talk to each other, and express opinions. No matter what the country does to suppress it, they're doing it anyway. They are putting together a network of consciousness, of oneness, a multicultural consciousness. It's here to stay. It's part of the new energy. The young people know it and are leading the way.... "

" ... I gave you a prophecy more than 10 years ago. I told you there would come a day when everyone could talk to everyone and, therefore, there could be no conspiracy. For conspiracy depends on separation and secrecy - something hiding in the dark that only a few know about. Seen the news lately? What is happening? Could it be that there is a new paradigm happening that seems to go against history?... " Read More …. "The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

"Recalibration of Free Choice"– Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth, 4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical) 8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…5 - Integrity That May Surprise…

Have you seen innovation and invention in the past decade that required thinking out of the box of an old reality? Indeed, you have. I can't tell you what's coming, because you haven't thought of it yet! But the potentials of it are looming large. Let me give you an example, Let us say that 20 years ago, you predicted that there would be something called the Internet on a device you don't really have yet using technology that you can't imagine. You will have full libraries, buildings filled with books, in your hand - a worldwide encyclopedia of everything knowable, with the ability to look it up instantly! Not only that, but that look-up service isn't going to cost a penny! You can call friends and see them on a video screen, and it won't cost a penny! No matter how long you use this service and to what depth you use it, the service itself will be free.

Now, anyone listening to you back then would perhaps have said, "Even if we can believe the technological part, which we think is impossible, everything costs something. There has to be a charge for it! Otherwise, how would they stay in business?" The answer is this: With new invention comes new paradigms of business. You don't know what you don't know, so don't decide in advance what you think is coming based on an old energy world. ..."
(Subjects: Who/What is Kryon ?, Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" Managed Business, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Global Unity,..... etc.)


German anti-hate speech group counters Facebook trolls

German anti-hate speech group counters Facebook trolls
Logo No Hate Speech Movement

Bundestag passes law to fine social media companies for not deleting hate speech

Honouring computing’s 1843 visionary, Lady Ada Lovelace. (Design of doodle by Kevin Laughlin)

Friday, July 27, 2012

France probes tech firm accused of aiding Syria regime

AFP/Google, Jul 7, 2012

PARIS — Paris prosecutors opened a preliminary probe Thursday into the alleged involvement of French technology firm Qosmos in supplying Syria's regime with surveillance equipment, judicial sources said.

A page of the website of the French
company Qosmos (AFP)
The investigation follows a suit filed by human rights groups against the firm which said that Qosmos may have been supplying equipment that helped President Bashar Al-Assad's regime spy on opposition forces.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Human Rights League (LDH) jointly filed the complaint with the Paris prosecutor on Wednesday.

"Western companies must know that they cannot sell this type of equipment to authoritarian regimes without being held accountable," said Michel Tubiana of the LDH.

Qosmos's website says its core expertise is in "technology that creates an information layer in communications networks, enabling detailed, real-time visibility into all IP (Internet Protocol) traffic as it crosses networks".

Benoit Chabert, a lawyer for the firm, told AFP on Wednesday that Qosmos had not yet seen the complaint filed against it but that it had been involved in no wrong-doing.

The French foreign ministry said Qosmos' last exports to Syria appeared to have taken place in late 2011, before the European Union in January banned exports of technology equipment that could be used against the opposition.

According to a tally by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 19,000 people, mostly civilians, have died since Assad sent in his troops to crush a a popular uprising that erupted in March last year.

French authorities opened a probe in May into the activities of Amesys, another French firm, after the FIDH and LDH accused it of providing surveillance equipment to Libya's now dead strongman Moamer Kadhafi.

The equipment, the groups said, was aimed at targeting "opponents, arresting them and putting them in prison, where they were tortured".

Amesys said after the probe was announced that it "very strongly denies the accusation of 'complicity in torture' and hopes to quickly be able to inform the investigating magistrate of the reality of the case".

The company had admitted in September that it supplied Kadhafi's regime with "analysis equipment" but noted the deal was made only after Libya had improved ties with the West and that it did not operate any surveillance.

Black Hat: Iris scanners 'can be tricked' by hackers

BBC News, 26 July 2012

Related Stories 

Iris scanners are widely recognised
 as one of the most secure biometric
security measures
 
Security researchers have discovered a way to replicate a person's eye to bypass iris-scanning security systems.

A team at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid was able to recreate the image of an iris from digital codes of real irises stored in security databases.

The findings were shared at the annual Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.

It raises doubts over what is considered to be one of the most secure methods of biometric security.

Researcher Javier Galbally and his team, which included researchers from West Virginia University, were able to print out synthetic images of irises.

In one experiment, the researchers tested their fake irises against a leading commercial-recognition system. In 80% of attempts, they said, the scanner believed it was a real eye.

While researchers have been able to create realistic iris images for some time, it is thought that this is the first instance where the fake image can be generated from the iris code of a real person - a method which could be used to steal someone's identity.

An iris code is the data stored by recognition systems when it scans a person's eye. It contains around 5,000 different pieces of information.

Digital WMD

The research was explained to an audience at the annual Black Hat conference, a meeting of the leading figures in IT security from across the world.

Shawn Henry, the former head of the FBI's cybercrime unit, gave a key speech at the event.

He urged security experts to counter-attack in their attempts to stamp out criminal activity.

"We need warriors to fight our enemies, particularly in the cyber world right now," he told his audience.

"I believe the threat from computer network attack is the most significant threat we face as a civilised world, other than a weapon of mass destruction."

He called on the computer security industry to begin looking at ways of gathering intelligence on possible attacks and attackers, rather than seeking simply to block them when they happen.

"It is not enough to watch the perimeter," Mr Henry said.

"We have to be constantly hunting, looking for tripwires.

"Intelligence is the key to all of this. If we understand who the adversary is, we can take specific actions."

Apple appearance

For the first time, Apple representatives will be speaking at the Black Hat event.

The company is expected to outline security features in the coming release of its latest mobile operating system, iOS.

The appearance comes at a crucial time for Apple. Earlier in the year, the company's Mac range suffered a malware attack, with more than 500,000 machines infected.

The fallout put a dent in Apple's reputation for producing computers that were safe from the kind of attacks which are common on PCs.

According to Black Hat's general manager Trey Ford, Apple was scheduled to appear at the event in 2008, but pulled out after the company's marketing team intervened.

"Bottom line - no-one at Apple speaks without marketing approval," Mr Ford wrote in an email quoted by Bloomberg.

"Apple will be at Black Hat 2012, and marketing is on board."

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Google executive Marissa Mayer to become Yahoo CEO in surprise move

Yahoo scores coup in bringing in Mayer, who was the 20th employee to join Google and who had spent 13 years there

guardian.co.uk, Dominic Rushe and Charles Arthur, Monday 16 July 2012

Marissa Mayer said: 'I am honoured and delighted to lead Yahoo, one of the
internet's premier destinations.' Photograph: Oliver Lang/AFP/Getty Images

Marissa Mayer, one of Google's top executives and its first female engineer, will be the next chief executive officer of Yahoo, making her one of the most prominent women in Silicon Valley and in corporate America.

Mayer will start immediately, with her first day being Tuesday 17 July. The fact that she was a candidate had been kept completely secret – with no indication from Google's top managers that she was about to leave.

The appointment of Mayer is a surprising and impressive coup for Yahoo, a company that has been racked by internal turmoil as it has struggled to compete with Google, Facebook and Twitter in the online display advertising market. Mayer will be Yahoo's fifth chief executive in five years, and its second woman.

"I am honoured and delighted to lead Yahoo, one of the internet's premier destinations for more than 700 million users," Mayer said in a statement. "I look forward to working with the company's dedicated employees to bring innovative products, content, and personalized experiences to users and advertisers all around the world."

Yahoo said that Mayer's appointment "signals a renewed focus on product innovation", indicating that the company aims to compete on the technological – and not just the content – front.

Mayer, 37, has a degree in artificial intelligence. In 1999, when Google was barely a year old, she became its 20th employee, going on to spend 13 years there. She had become one of its most prominent voices. More recently, Mayer has also begun to forge a wider role in corporate America, recently joining the board of retail giant Walmart.

She is sixmonths pregnant with her first child, due in October, and said her maternity leave would be "a few weeks long and I'll work through it".

Mayer joins a very short list of women in top jobs in Silicon Valley, alongside Meg Whitman, the chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, Virginia Rometty, the head of IBM, and Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer.

She takes over at a company that has been roiled by scandal and argument. In May, Yahoo lost its last chief executive, Scott Thompson, after only four months. The former PayPal boss was ousted after it emerged that he had padded his resumé, leading to angry shareholders demanding that he go. Thompson's departure also led to a board reshuffle and the resignation of chairman Roy Bostock.

Thompson's exit followed the even more tempestuous firing of his predecessor Carol Bartz, who left in a foul-mouthed tirade, calling the board "doofuses" who had "fucked me over."

Yahoo has struggled for years to keep up with Google in search ads as Facebook has eclipsed it in display advertising. Yahoo is now worth just over $19bn, less than half the $44.6bn Microsoft offered for the company in 2008.

The company stock jumped 2% in after-hours trading to just over $16.

Colin Gillis, a tech analyst at BGC Partners in New York, said Mayer was a great appointment and a loss for Google. "She is in a different league," he said. "She is very widely respected and she really knows this business."

At Google, Mayer had been responsible for many of the company's key products, including its famous search homepage, Gmail and Google News. More recently, she has taken on responsibility for location and local services, including Google Maps.

She was a popular Google prosleytiser, often sent out to talk about Google's services, and she also sat on Google's operating committee, a cadre of close advisers to Google's co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Shortly after her move into local services in 2010, Google made another executive, Jeff Huber, senior vice-president of local and commerce, one level above Mayer's post.

Gillis said she Mayer's career path appeared to have been blocked at Google. "I think she got so far but they were moving her sideways," he said. "I don't think they will be happy about this. It's a blow."

Yahoo co-founder David Filo said: "Marissa is a well-known, visionary leader in user experience and product design, and one of Silicon Valley's most exciting strategists in technology development. I look forward to working with her to enhance Yahoo's product offerings for our over 700 million unique monthly visitors."



Sunday, July 15, 2012

Google maps for Dutch cyclists

RNW, 12 July 2012, by Louise Dunne

 (Willemvdk)
             
Dutch cyclists no longer have to rely on old-fashioned maps but can turn to their smart phones for help because Google maps has added cycle paths to its directions.

It’s long been possible for Google users to plan a journey via car, foot or public transport and the internet giant is working together with various local councils and mapmakers to include what it describes as the best routes for cyclists.

The service has been available for some time in parts of the US and has now been launched in the Netherlands along with a number of other countries, including Australia and Great Britain.

Google is asking users to alert it to routes that may be suitable for cyclists but not yet marked as such on its online maps.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

First Photo on Internet Marks 20-Year Anniversary

ABC News, by Alon Harish, July 11, 2012

Les Horribles Cernettes, a comedic musical group at CERN, strike a
 pose in the first photo ever to be uploaded to the Internet. (Silvano de Gennaro)

Two decades before scientists at CERN announced they had likely found the Higgs boson, the Geneva-based particle physics lab made history with a little less fanfare.

That's when a promotional photo of Les Horribles Cernettes, a comedic musical group composed of girlfriends and secretaries of CERN scientists, became the first photo ever to appear on the Internet. It was posted 20 years ago this week. While only a handful of people saw it then, the photo is now having something of a revival.

Silvano de Gennaro, an I.T. developer at CERN who was also manager of the Cernettes, snapped the photo while backstage at a music festival organized by the lab's administrators. He edited it using the first version of Adobe Photoshop, and saved it as a GIF file on his Macintosh.

After Internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee, also working at CERN at the time, developed a new version of the World Wide Web that supported photos, he uploaded the Cernettes photo to what might be called the first ever band website — a page on the CERN website devoted to its musical acts.

 "Tim passed by my office and said, 'Can I have it? I want to put it on the Web,'" de Gennaro said. "I hardly knew what the Web was. I knew it was an information exchange system used by physicists."

The exact date of the photo's publication is a bit murky, de Gennaro said. Berners-Lee was working on the code that would allow photos to render online when he got the photo from de Gennaro's floppy disk, so the photo likely appeared on the Web and came on several times before the code was finalized.

De Gennaro, now married to original Cernette Michele de Gennaro, wrote the group's songs, which include "My Sweetheart is a Nobel Prize" and "Every Proton of You." The photo was intended as a CD cover for an album the group was producing, he said.

Michele de Gennaro said she had forgotten about the photo when her husband told her, years after it was taken, that it had made history.

"We were just racing to get onstage, and Silvano said to strike a pose, so we did," she said.

Berners-Lee became a fan of the group after befriending former member Colette Marx-Nielson, who told Vice that Berners-Lee was known to dress as a woman in an "amateur operatic society" at CERN.

"I kinda put it out sometimes and say, 'Well, I'm in the first photograph on the World Wide Web,'" she told Vice. "People don't really care. I suppose it had to be somebody, and it just happened to be us."

While the Cernettes began as a joke, they were so successful that they kept performing, with various personnel changes, for more than 20 years, Silvano de Gennaro said. But with his recent retirement and imminent move from Switzerland, the band is bidding the lab farewell.

The Cernettes will play a final concert at CERN on July 21.



"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) SoulsReincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa,Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism, Higgs Boson), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)

MIT Chip Harvests Energy from Three Different Sources

DailyTechTiffany Kaiser, July 11, 2012 

Energy is harnessed from natural light, vibrations and heat

 (Source: energymicro.com)
MIT researchers have developed wireless computer chips that are capable of harnessing power from natural light, vibrations and heat.

Anantha Chandrakasan, an MIT professor, led the MIT team in creating the new computer chips. These chips have the ability to run at very low power levels and collect energy from all three above-mentioned ambient power sources.

The chip consists of a circuit that can collect from many different environmental sources of energy, such as vibrations from traffic on a bridge. Many chips need separate control circuits for each energy source because of certain requirements for the collection of each. Many circuits that harvest thermal energy produce about 0.02 to 0.15 volts while those that harvest from vibrations produce up to 5 volts.

However, this new chip from MIT can collect power from natural light, vibrations and heat -- all on one circuit.

Aside from the ability to collect energy from three different environmental sources, the chip can operate at low-power levels. It is able to do this using a dual-path architecture where the sensor can either be powered directly from the source or from a storage device. This makes it much more efficient, as it uses a single time-shared inductor, which helps operate multiple converters at once.

A circuit like this means a battery-free monitoring system, which could be applied to environmental sensors and biomedical devices at some point. Having energy harvesting capabilities in many environments can increase power from certain systems like wireless sensor nodes.

The chip is also helpful because only one or maybe two energy sources may be available at a given time. With three possibilities at once, this is no longer an issue.

Source: MIT

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Spy code creator kills project after Syrian abuse

BBC News, 10 July 2012

Related Stories 

Opponents of the government in Syria
have  been spied on using many
different hi-tech tools
Widely used security software has been discontinued after its creator discovered the Syrian government was using it to spy on its opponents.

The "disgusting" way the DarkComet Remote Admin Tool (Rat) was being used in Syria had led to its production being halted, said Jean-Pierre Lesueur.

He said his intention had only ever been to produce tools that were better than those commercially available.

Experts welcomed DarkComet's demise, saying the Rat was being widely abused.

Syria's use of the tool emerged earlier this year as the government sought to keep tabs on opponents in the country's ongoing civil conflict.

Once DarkComet is installed on a target PC it allows remote access to that machine and can log any activity on it.

The Syrian government attempted to use this function of the Rat by trying to trick its opponents into opening a booby-trapped Skype chat message.

In a message posted to the DarkComet website, Mr Lesueur said he was ending the project after four years of work because of the widespread "misuse of the tool".

He said it was never his intention for the tool to be used by hacker groups and he did not want to be held responsible for what people, and governments, had done with DarkComet.

Mr Lesueur said he would continue working in computer security but only on projects that could not be turned to malicious ends.

Rat poison

The decision to shut down DarkComet means there will be no future versions, but nothing has been done to remove copies of the programs already in use.

Rik Ferguson, director of security research in Europe for Trend Micro, said he and many other professionals had used DarkComet for penetration testing and malware detection but not as a management tool.

However, he said, the overwhelming use of DarkComet was by those with malicious or dubious intentions. He said some of the tool's menu items and functions made it hard to believe it was intended entirely for legitimate use.

"It was no surprise to hear of the Syrian regime using this Rat to spy on their population," Mr Ferguson told the BBC. "It follows in the grand tradition of using Rats in targeted, politically motivated attacks such as LuckyCat, Gh0stnet and Shadownet."

He added: "It's not often you can welcome the demise of anything, however, let's hope DarkComet is only the first Rat to take the poison."

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Child's Play: Indian street youth develop model banking system





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Peer-to-peer lending via the internet hits £250m

Jamie Hirst has been able to borrow money at a
cheaper rate than from his bank

"The New Paradigm of Reality" Part I/II – Feb 12, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)  (Subjects: Who/What is Kryon ?, Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" Managed Business, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Dictators, Global Unity,..... etc.)


"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) SoulsMidpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Lose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Pedal wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”(Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.)

Friday, July 6, 2012

Human Rights Council backs Internet freedom

AFP/Google, Jul 5, 2012

GENEVA — The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva passed its first resolution on Internet freedom on Thursday with a call for all states to support individuals' rights online as much as offline.

A woman views the Chinese social
media  website Weibo at a cafe in
Beijing (AFP/File, Mark Ralston)
Despite opposition on the issue from nations including China, Russia and India, states promoting the resolution hailed the support of dozens of countries ahead of its adoption.

"This outcome is momentous for the Human Rights Council," US ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe told reporters.

"It's the first UN resolution that confirms that human rights in the Internet realm must be protected with the same commitment as in the real world."

The text had the support of 85 co-sponsors, 30 of whom are members of the HRC, Donahoe added. The United States was among the text's co-sponsors.

"This resolution is a welcome addition in the fight for the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms online," said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a statement issued in Washington.

"The free flow of news and information is under threat in countries around the world. We are witnessing an alarming surge in the number of cases involving government censorship and persecution of individuals for their actions online -- sometimes for just a single tweet or text message," Clinton added.

Of other states supporting the initiative, Tunisia's ambassador Moncef Baati said it was particularly important for his country because of the role social networking websites played in ousting president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

"The most important result of the Tunisian revolution is this right to freedom of expression...(this) is very important at the moment (in Tunisia) and it is for this reason that there is a strong commitment in Tunisia to consolidate Internet rights," he said.

"Our link with all media networks during the revolution doubles the importance of this commitment to freedom of expression on the Internet which remains a major tool for economic development."

The independent Tunisian authority charged with reforming the media, the National Body for the Reform of Information and Communication (INRIC), announced on Wednesday that it had shut down after failing to achieve its objective, accusing the North African nation's Islamist-dominated government of censorship.

Other countries that backed the resolution on the Promotion, Protection and Enjoyment of Human Rights on the Internet included Brazil, Nigeria, Sweden and Turkey.



Alibaba: Former executive detained amid bribe probe

BBC News, 6 July 2012

Related Stories 

Alibaba said it has been trying to
prevent  cases of misconduct in
the firm
Alibaba Group has said that one of its former executives, Yan Limin, has been detained by police in China on "suspicion of accepting bribes".

Mr Yan was the former general manager of the Alibaba's Juhuasuan website, which specialises in group-buying.

Alibaba said it had fired Mr Yan in March for not following regulatory mechanisms and for mismanagement.

Alibaba, China's biggest e-commerce group, said it was assisting with the investigation.

"It reemphasises that Alibaba Group has a zero-tolerance policy against corruption and is determined to stamp out these types of behaviours," the firm said in a statement.

"We are transparently communicating with customers, vendors and third parties, as well as employees, when we find a situation involving misconduct inside the company."

In February last year, two executives at Alibaba resigned after a rise in fraudulent sales.

The firm said at the time that an internal investigation had discovered more than 1,000 fraud cases in both 2009 and 2010.

Chinese police subsequently arrested 36 people connected with operating the online fraud on Alibaba.com and other websites.

Related Article:


Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Acta: Controversial anti-piracy agreement rejected by EU

BBC News, 4 July 2012

Related Stories 

The treaty had been heavily critcised
in the months leading up to the vote
The European Parliament has voted to reject the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta).

The proposed agreement sought to curb piracy, but internet campaigners said it posed a threat to online freedoms.

The rejection vote followed a failed attempt to postpone the decision because of ongoing investigations into Acta by the European Court of Justice.

Euro MP David Martin said: "It's time to give [Acta] its last rites."

Twenty two EU member states, including the UK, had signed the Acta treaty - but it had not been formally ratified.

Outside the EU, the treaty also had the support of the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea.

However, following significant protests, several countries chose not to back the treaty.

Wednesday's vote is seen by most observers as the final blow to the treaty in its current form. It means no member states will be able to join the agreement.

A total of 478 MEPs voted against the deal, with 39 in favour. There were 165 abstentions.

'Hello democracy'

EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said work into tackling piracy would continue.

"Today's rejection does not change the fact that the European Commission has committed itself to seeking answers to the questions raised by the European public," he said.

"The European Commission will continue to seek the legal opinion of the European Court of Justice on whether this agreement harms any of the fundamental rights of European citizens - including freedom of speech.

"European citizens have raised these concerns and now they have the right to receive answers. We must respect that right."

As the decision was made, some of those in attendance held banners reading: "Hello democracy, goodbye Acta".

The UK's Pirate Party had campaigned against Acta since details of the treaty were first made public.

In a statement, leader Loz Kaye said he was pleased that politicians "listened to the millions" of people who had sent messages in protest.

"The European Parliament vote is a triumph of democracy over special interests and shady back-room deals," Mr Kaye said.

"Without this opposition, our representatives would have waved this agreement through. It is now clear that it is becoming increasingly politically poisonous to be 'anti-internet'."


The European Parliament has voted to reject the
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta)

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Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Twitter Transparency Report

Twitter BlogMonday, July 02, 2012

Wednesday marks Independence Day here in the United States. Beyond the fireworks and barbecue, July 4th serves as an important reminder of the need to hold governments accountable, especially on behalf of those who may not have a chance to do so themselves.

With that in mind, today we’re unveiling our first Twitter Transparency Report. Inspired by the great work done by our peers @Google, the primary goal of this report is to shed more light on:

  • government requests received for user information,
  • government requests received to withhold content, and
  • DMCA takedown notices received from copyright holders.


The report also provides insight into whether or not we take action on these requests.

One of our goals is to grow Twitter in a way that makes us proud. This ideal informs many of our policies and guides us in making difficult decisions. One example is our long-standing policy to proactively notify users of requests for their account information unless we’re prohibited by law; another example is transmitting DMCA takedown notices and requests to withhold content to Chilling Effects. These policies help inform people, increase awareness and hold all involved parties––including ourselves––more accountable; the release of our first Transparency Report aims to further these ambitions.

Here’s the data, which dates back to January 1, 2012. You can also find these tables, along with more information about the data, in our Help Center.





We’ve received more government requests in the first half of 2012, as outlined in this initial dataset, than in the entirety of 2011. Moving forward, we’ll be publishing an updated version of this information twice a year.

Along with publishing our Transparency Report, we’re also partnering with Herdict, which “collects and disseminates real-time, crowdsourced information about Internet filtering, denial of service attacks, and other blockages.” This new partnership aims to drive more traffic and exposure to Herdict, while also empowering the web community at large to help keep an eye on whether users can access Twitter around the world.

These two new initiatives—the Twitter Transparency Report and our partnership with Herdict—are an important part of keeping the Tweets flowing.

Posted by Jeremy Kessel, Manager, Legal Policy (@jer)


Related Article:

Google reports 'alarming' rise in censorship by governments

Over six months Google complied with 47% of requests
for content removal and 65% of court orders. Photograph:
Jonathan Hordle/Rex Features
.