Tiananmen Sweeps Twitter as Chinese Thwart Ban

Twitter, Path blamed in privacy controversy

(NEWSER) - Leading smartphone apps are taking a lot more of our information than we realize. If you use Twitter's "Find Friends" feature, the company receives every phone number and email address in your address book—a fact that Twitter hadn't clarified, the Los Angeles Times reports. The company now says it will fix the problem. But it's just one of many companies storing user information with a view toward ultimately using it for advertising. More»

It involves whining about a sandwich

(NEWSER) - How to be an ace tweeter? Megan Garber at the Atlantic pores over a new study and starts her lesson with what not to do. This would be "The Most Annoying Tweet Imaginable":

• "BREAKING: Last week I had a #sandwich that was SO HORRIBLE, it made me want to #scream. Seriously, why can't they make better #sandwiches?"

Dissidents fear losing free-speech tool

(NEWSER) - Twitter's controversial decision to allow censorship of tweets on a country-by-country basis has won praise from two of the countries with the busiest censors. In Thailand—ranked 153rd in the world for press freedom because of its strict laws against offending the monarchy—the country's information minister called the move a "welcome development," adding that the government has already received "good co-operation" from Google and Facebook. Thais can be jailed just for clicking "like" on a page deemed offensive to the monarchy, the Guardian notes. More»

Even as some say they support the protesters

(NEWSER) - Chinese Internet users were just a wee bit amused by American protests over the Stop Online Privacy Act . "Don't understand the hoopla over Wikipedia blackout in the US today," one microblogger wrote, according to the LA Times . "We blacked it out here years ago. Where are OUR hugs?" Another blogger observed that "Only an American company could protest the way Wikipedia or Google has [to deal with] the government. A Chinese company would never get away with that." More»

That's what one company suing an ex-worker thinks

(NEWSER) - Do a company's Twitter followers belong to the firm, or to the employee doing the tweeting—and how much is each follower worth? The questions are at the heart of a lawsuit in South Carolina, report AP and the New York Times : An online tech review firm is suing a former employee who ran a company Twitter account. When Noah Kravitz left PhoneDog, he changed the name on the account and kept its 17,000 followers. The company says Kravitz owes it $2.50 per follower over 8 months, amounting to $340,000. More»