By Joe Brock JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Google and Facebook are at the forefront of a scramble to win over new African Internet users, offering freebies they say give a leg-up to the poor but which critics argue is a plan to lock in customers on a continent of 1 billion people.
Read moreBy Suchitra Mohanty NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India's top court struck down a law on Tuesday that gave authorities powers to jail people for offensive online posts, a verdict hailed as a victory for free speech in the world's largest growth market for the Internet. Section 66A of the country's Information and Technology (IT) Act was challenged in the Supreme Court by law students, bloggers, writers and rights groups following arrests across the country for statements posted on social media sites
Read moreSwitzerland's competition commission WEKO said on Tuesday it had approved the purchase of online directory search.ch by Swisscom, as the telecoms group tries to compete with the likes of Google in digital advertising. In a deal reached last year, Swisscom is to combine directory operator local.ch, which provides information on phone numbers, with Swiss media company Tamedia's search and information service search.ch in a joint subsidiary. Together the local online directories will reach 3.6 million internet users per month in Switzerland, and the merger will be completed by mid-2015, the companies said in a joint statement
Read moreBy Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. broadband providers on Monday filed lawsuits against the Federal Communications Commission's recently approved net neutrality rules, launching what is a expected to be a series of legal challenges. Broadband industry trade group USTelecom filed a lawsuit against the FCC in the U.S.
Read moreThe Pentagon said on Monday it was notifying 100 U.S. troops that a group claiming ties to Islamic State militants had posted their names, addresses and photos on the Internet and was calling for American sympathizers to kill them
Read more(Reuters) – Nasdaq OMX Group Inc agreed to provide a startup the core technology to power a marketplace for trading bitcoins and related digital-currency assets, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Read moreTaiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd on Monday said it has partnered Chinese social networker Tencent Holdings Ltd to develop opportunities related to electric vehicles, marking the latest tech foray into “smart” cars. Hon Hai, WeChat operator Tencent and luxury car dealer China Harmony Auto Holding Ltd signed an agreement to work together in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou, Henan province, the contract manufacturer said without detailing specifics. The partnership would put Tencent on a par with online peers Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Baidu Inc, which have already moved into the nascent market for Internet-connected cars vie tie-ups with major auto makers
Read moreKey staff members at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission were in favor of suing Google Inc for violating antitrust rules before the agency settled its investigation in 2013, according a confidential report cited by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. The report by the staff of the FTC's competition bureau argued that the owner of the world's No
Read more(Reuters) – Penn State University’s president says a re-evaluation of the school’s fraternity system may be needed after a fraternity was suspended for posting online photographs of nude women, some of them apparently unconscious. In a statement on Penn State’s website, President Eric Barron said he was “shocked and angered by the apparent disregard for not only the law, but also human dignity.” Barron called the images showing the women naked or partially clothed “highly inappropriate and disturbing.” The Kappa Delta Rho fraternity was suspended as of March 3, accused of hosting private Facebook pages and posting pictures that members took of mostly undressed women who were passed out or sleeping. “This evidence, which is still being gathered by the State College Police, is appalling, offensive and inconsistent with our community’s values
Read moreFacebook Inc clarified its rules banning certain content from its social network, as the Internet company strives to curb controversial posts such as support for violent militant groups and nudity without damaging its status as a global hub for users to share information. The 1.39 billion-member social network updated its “community standards” late Sunday, providing specific examples of content prohibited under its general rules against direct threats, hate speech and criminal activity.
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