Media News - Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Twitter releases data on government requests for user information

Following in Google's wake, Twitter has released for the first time data on government requests for user information. The table shows that the US government is significantly more interventionist in terms of the number of times it has asked Twitter to hand over information than any other government in the world. From 1 January 2012, the US made 679 user information requests out of a total of 849, compared with 98 requests from the Japanese government, 11 each from the Canadian and British governments and under 10 for a slew of other countries. Not only did the US put in the largest number of requests by far, it was also the most successful at extracting information out of Twitter, with some 75% of its bids eliciting some or all of the information asked for. Twitter said that it was bringing out its first transparency report to mark Independence Day, having been inspired by Google's example. The social media firm stressed that it passed on requests for user information to the Twitter account holder in all cases unless prohibited by law. Twitter's report shows that it has received more government requests for information on users in the first half of 2012 than in the whole of 2011. Twitter says that from now on it will follow Google's example and produce a transparency report every six months. (The Guardian)

Twitter ordered to hand over Occupy tweets

A US court has ordered Twitter to release old messages and details about a user arrested during an Occupy Wall Street protest in New York. The micro-blogging firm contested the subpoena, saying the tweets were owned by users rather than the company. But a judge said defendant Malcolm Harris' privacy would not be violated if the material was handed over. The judge said he would personally review the information and would only release the relevant sections to prosecution and defence lawyers. The case centres around Mr Harris, managing editor of the New Inquiry website, a cultural magazine site. He was arrested on 1 October - along with hundreds of other campaigners - during a march across New York's Brooklyn Bridge. Prosecutors claim tweets by Mr Harris would reveal that he was "well-aware of police instructions" ordering protesters not to block traffic. Mr Harris, and others, say they thought police had given them permission to march on the road. Prosecutors have asked to see tweets posted by Mr Harris between 15 September and 31 December. Mr Harris's lawyer had tried to block access to the postings, but the judge ruled that once the messages had been sent they became the property of Twitter. But Twitter challenged the subpoena, arguing that the judge had misunderstood how the service worked. Twitter's lawyer, Ben Lee, said during earlier hearings: "Twitter's terms of service make absolutely clear that its users 'own' their own content. Our filing with the court reaffirms our steadfast commitment to defending those rights for our users." (BBC News)

South China Post editor under fire as press freedom ‘shrinks’

The first China-born editor of Hong Kong’s flagship English-language paper admits he made a “bad call” in cutting coverage of a mainland dissident’s death, but denies he is a stooge for Beijing. The South China Morning Post’s editor-in-chief Wang Xiangwei has himself been making the news, accused of muzzling the newspaper to appease Chinese authorities, amid a broader fear that Hong Kong is losing cherished freedoms. Such concerns fuelled Hong Kong’s biggest protest in eight years on Sunday just after a weekend visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao, to mark the 15th anniversary of the territory’s handover and the inauguration of its new leader. Angry journalists at the 109-year-old South China Morning Post, one of the world’s most profitable dailies, allege a steady erosion of their freedom to report on China since Wang took over the editorship in February. Internal bickering at the SCMP exploded into the open after the death last month of Li Wangyang, a Tiananmen Square democracy activist who was found hanged in his mainland hospital ward. The official verdict was suicide. But his family suspect foul play given that Li was blind, nearly deaf and barely able to walk. His death received prominent coverage across Hong Kong’s Chinese-language media. But while the SCMP carried the Li story at length in the first edition of the June 7 newspaper, Wang replaced it for the second edition and reduced the original story to a 101-word brief. The Post eventually went harder on the Li story, with front-page splashes, editorials and two columns by Wang, who ran a statement in the paper saying he had waited “until more facts and details... could be established”. But staff questioned why the story ran at all on June 7 if the facts were in doubt, and concerns about Wang’s editorship are gaining wider traction after an SCMP sub-editor challenged him in a terse e-mail exchange that went public. (AFP)

Google offers to settle EU antitrust case

Google may offer to change how it ranks other sites in its search engine listings to settle with the European commission's antitrust investigators over accusations that it has abused its dominant market position in search and online advertising. A similar investigation is under way in the US, where the Federal Trade Commission is conducting a parallel investigation with similar concerns. A letter from Google, before the expiration of a deadline on Monday, is understood to offer a series of proposals to deal with claims made by EC competition chief Joaquin Almunia in May. Almunia's office will now have to decide whether to accept Google's proposals and settle the case, or to file formal charges which could lead to a drawn-out battle with the US search giant through the courts. Google was accused by antitrust investigators of acting improperly in the way that it ranked rivals in search results; in copying content from other sites; in tying sites to exclusive advertising agreements; and in restricting the portability of advertising campaigns from its platform to competitors. (The Guardian)

Microsoft in USD 6.2bn write-down of aQuantive advertising service

Microsoft could plunge to a quarterly loss after taking a USD 6.2bn charge against its balance sheet by writing down the value of its aQuantive online advertising service, bought in May 2007, almost to zero. The decision reflects its inability to produce further revenue from the service, and could push the company into a technical loss in its quarterly results for the three months to 30 June, where analysts had expected it to make a profit of USD 5.3bn. The figures will be announced on 17 July. The software giant blamed the setback primarily on aQuantive's disappointing performance, and admitted that while business in its online services division – in which its Bing search engine and aQuantive were housed – has been improving "the company's expectations for future growth and profitability are lower than previous estimates." At USD 6.2bn the aQuantive purchase was, at the time, the most expensive acquisition in the company's 37-year history. Since it bought aQuantive, Microsoft's online division has reported losses totaling nearly USD 9bn. (The Guardian)

Metro Belgium introduces Scoopshot

After Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands, now also Metro Belgium in introducing the photo-app Scoopshot for their readers. The the app – iPhone and Android – registered users can upload photo’s to the newspaper. When a picture gets published, the photographer receives a fee. Users can upload their own photo’s but Metro will also ask for specific contributions. Metro claims that there are already 100,000 regitered users that have send in 250,000 pictures. Metro Belgium is partner of Metro International and not owned by the company nor a Metrop franchise. (Newspaper Innovation)

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