Facing Lawsuit, Google Drops Some Content in India

Google Inc. removed some controversial content from its Indian services to comply with a court order in a civil lawsuit, the latest twist in the legal drama over Web censorship in the world’s largest democracy.

Costolo: Twitter Isn’t Looking to Censor Anyone

Twitter’s chief says the company’s new ability to block tweets for a particular country is about censoring content for fewer people, not more.
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Twitter Can Censor by Country

Twitter Inc. says it can now make content selectively available to users based on geography, and plans to use that ability to enter countries with “different ideas” about freedom of expression as a human right — reflecting the difficult ethical questions facing Internet companies.

The Full Valenti: Dodd Trades His Olive Branch to Tech for a Howitzer, After SOPA/PIPA Gets Delayed

What would Jack do? (And would it work anymore?)
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What Goes On When the Net Goes Dark? (Comic)

Here is the latest comic from our Joy of Tech friends at Geek Culture, Nitrozac and Snaggy. Joy of Tech appears three times a week in the Voices section of this site.
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Obama Likes the Internet, So He’ll Probably Veto SOPA if It Gets That Far

Will he or won’t he?
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Unprecedented Censorship

A congressional “tech mandate” on search engines to delete a domain name from search results does not result in the website disappearing. Users can and do today find their way to these websites largely without the help of search engines. Relative to the questionable efficacy of this proposed remedy, requiring search engines to delete a domain name begins a worldwide arms race of unprecedented “censorship” of the Web.

– From a letter written by Vint Cerf to Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the House Judiciary chairman and author of SOPA, warning of the dangers of the bill

Bill Aims to Curb Tech Firms’ Exports

Pressure mounted Thursday on U.S. and Western companies that sell censorship and surveillance technology to repressive regimes, with a congressman introducing a bill that would restrict such exports.

Bill Would Curb Exports of Spyware

A bill that would restrict U.S. exports of technology that can be used by repressive regimes to censor the Internet or conduct surveillance on users will be introduced in the House soon.

U.S. Firm Acknowledges Syria Uses Its Gear to Block Web

A U.S. company that makes Internet-blocking gear acknowledges that Syria has been using at least 13 of its devices to censor Web activity there — an admission that comes as the Syrian government cracks down on its citizens and silences their online activities.