Young Republicans Staking Out Positions on the Web

Racy pics, suicide threats get would-be cops dumped

(NEWSER) - Law enforcement agencies are probing potential recruits’ digital lives for information that might make them unfit for the job, USA Today reports. More than a third of police agencies look into applicants’ social media presence, says a new report conducted for police executives. Reviewing postings to sites like Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube, some agencies require applicants’ online passwords, or want to see their text-messaging and email records. More»

Chinese government to face Google—and Goojje

(NEWSER) - In a country famous for fake name-brand products, Goojje and YouTubecn may be the highest-profile imitations yet. As China battles it out with the real Google, knockoffs of both Google and YouTube have emerged on China's Internet. There's been no official response yet to the sites, but experts don't expect them to escape censorship—or intellectual property issues—for long. More»

Candidates mimic Obama campaign

(NEWSER) - Which presidential candidate has a lock on the words "hope" and "change"? These days, it's Afghan challenger Abdullah Abdullah, whose Obamaesque website—complete with scrolling news feeds, photo and video galleries, and social networking links—exhorts voters to "join the campaign to change Afghanistan." As the Hill reports, he's just one of several candidates in next week's vote to use last year's US race as an online template. More»

(NEWSER) - So why did Tweets fall silent for much of today? One leading theory traces the problem to the unlikeliest of places—the conflict between Russia and Georgia, CNET reports. It goes like this: A pro-Georgia blogger with accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and the other sites affected by today's slowdown attracted the ire of foes. "It was a simultaneous attack across a number of properties targeting him to keep his voice from being heard," says Facebook's security chief. More»

Says volume of feedback would be impossible to monitor

(NEWSER) - The British government has tried to harness the power of the Internet, but for Gordon Brown, the Web’s been prickly: a video of him picking his nose, for example, has been viewed far more often than recent policy address. Now the prime minister’s team has disabled comments on its YouTube portal, saying that moderating them would be a mammoth task, the Times of London reports. More»