We hear rumblings. Rumblings that Comcast put up a streaming version of our Nightline appearance on their subscribers-only site, The Fan. And rumbling from the belly of those rumblings? Word that Comcast just happened to cut the part of the Nightline segment where their company was cast in an unfavorable light.
censorship
Skype Censors Chinese Chat
By 5.23.06
Like Google, Skype’s a great service, but their flexible ethics when it comes to user’s privacy lacks the same quality of excellence. We shortly mentioned that Skype’s user agreement includes wire-tapping provisos, but now they’ve gone the whole hog: their Chinese service includes a special chat censorship feature.
AOL Denies Censoring DearAOL
By 4.17.06
AOL has predictably denied blocking emails that mentioned DearAOL.com. Instead, they have described it under the handy bugbear of being a “software glitch” that affected “over 50 sites with no commonality.” A list of the sites affected was not released, so, you know, we’ll just have to take their word for it.
Connecticut Blocks MySpace For The Children
By 3.23.06
Annoying internet fad provider MySpace.com is being asked to initiate measures so that parents can block the website from minors.
China Fights ICANN With New Domain Name System
By 3.8.06
The Chinese — weary of America’s control and insistence on Roman characters for domain names — have decided to set-up their own competitor to ICANN for domain names.
Blogs Get Whited-Out by Bic
By 3.7.06
The Ad-Rag advertising blog got white-out slathered on it for posting unauthorized Bic ads.
Tiananmen Square on Google.cn
By 2.8.06
One of our favorite blogs, Stay Free Daily, posted this side-by-side screen capture of the image search result for “Tiananmen Square”. The left side is from Google.fr. The right side is from Google.cn.
Everyone Hates Google.cn
By 1.26.06
Apparently, we weren’t the only ones upset by what Consumerist commenter Hawkins described as Google’s “capitulation to the commie bastards”… although he followed it up with: “But I submit that a constant reminder, every time you search, that you’re being dicked again by your government is better than nothing.” Which are the exact words that Google themselves should have used at the press conference. You might want to submit your C.V. to Google P.R., Hawkins.
Google Censors Its Chinese Service
By 1.25.06
Google has decided to open up a censored Chinese search service:
Google, famous for its “Don’t Be Evil” philosophy, is seeking to soften potential criticism by promising to inform Chinese users when search results are censored, something other China-based search services do not do. The decision to exclude results on sensitive topics such as democratic reform, Taiwanese independence or the banned Falun Gong movement has clearly been particularly difficult for a company dedicated to making information “universally accessible”.
