In the latest update of its Transparency Report, Google says it has received more than 1,000 official requests from governments to take down content from search results or YouTube in the last six months of 2011.

"It's alarming not only because free expression is at risk, but because some of these requests come from countries you might not suspect — Western democracies not typically associated with censorship," stated Dorothy Chou, Google’s senior policy analyst, in a blog post. "Unfortunately, what we've seen over the past couple years has been troubling, and today is no different. We hoped this was an aberration. But now we know it's not."Continue reading...

As the Jerry Sandusky child-molestation trial dominates the news, teen-centric social-networking virtual world Habbo Hotel has shut down the ability for its 250 million users to communicate with one another as a recent news broadcast has it that a reporter posing as a child was left open for sexual invitations, according to Brand Republic.

Of course, that’s something the site — "the world's largest social game and online community for teenagers," which we described two years ago as a "parent-free zone for kids to hang out and goof off" — is surely looking to fix quickly since what’s the point of a social-networking site if you can’t communicate with other users?

Not helping Habbo is that the explosive report by the UK’s Channel 4 — which found sexually explicit chat rooms and users as young as nine, despite the site's rule that it's for teens — prompted British retailers Tesco, WH Smith and GAME to stop selling Habbo gift cards and European venture-capital firm Balderton Capital (Habbo's main investor) to yank its stake in Finnish parent company Sulake, according to CNET.Continue reading...

As Facebook’s social and financial currency slips post-IPO debacle, the company is wasting no time in making its next headline-grabbing move, technology for children younger than 13 years old to use the social-networking site under parental supervision.

The move would open a cornucopia of new revenue streams and a Pandora’s box of privacy concerns by adding an entire new cohort to its 900 million users worldwide. Facebook's current policy bans children younger than 13, but 2011 research from Consumer Reports found 7.5 million people younger than 13 use the site, including more than five million under the age of 10. Microsoft's researchers also found that nearly one-third of 11-year-olds and more than half of 12-year-olds use Facebook with their parents' knowledge.

Among the options being tested is connecting children's accounts to their parents' for supervision of ‘friending’ and apps, and targeting the fast-growing game market for teens and tweens. Nearly 12% of Facebook's $3.7 billion in 2011 revenue came from games like Zynga’s Farmville.Continue reading...

As Microsoft released its new version of the Bing search engine today, it was another browser move that caused a flap. While potentially a win for Microsoft's brand, its consumer-first decision to embed 'Do Not Track' functionality in version 10 of its Internet Explorer browser in Windows 8 — with a default setting in the 'on' position — is "strongly" opposed by the Association of National Advertisers.Continue reading...

With Facebook’s historic IPO upon us — with a valuation of $104 billion, it's the third highest IPO for a U.S. company, after General Motors and Visa, and it's now worth more than McDonald's, Citigroup and Amazon — the social network's employees have a few challenges ahead beyond how to spend the vast sums of money heading their way.

For a start, Facebook must keep improving the site to better engage users. New research from Attensity, for example, shows that the new Facebook Timeline is a turn-off for many, representing a high risk of customer churn unless the design is improved, even though. One article, titled “Sure Facebook has 900 million users, but its engagement is smoked by these other sites,” argues that “total users is not the only measure of success for a social network.”Continue reading...

"We regularly review our overall media spend and make adjustments as needed. This happens as a regular course of business and it's not unusual for us to move our spending around various media outlets — especially with the growth of multiple social  and digital media outlets. In terms of Facebook specifically, while we currently do not plan to continue with advertising, we remain committed to an aggressive content strategy through all of our products and brands, as it continues to be a very effective tool for engaging with our customers."

The above statement was issued by General Motors today after a story by the Wall Street Journal was published online, in which GM chief marketing officer Joel Ewanick announced that the automaker will no longer advertise on Facebook — a bold announcement by one of the largest advertisers in the U.S.Continue reading...

Facebook may feel it has addressed privacy time and time again during its brief history, including recently addressing concerns about app privacy with the launch of Timeline.

But on the eve of its historic $96 billion (up to $104 billion) initial public offering, when it is expected to sell shares on NASDAQ starting Friday, Chief Privacy Officer for Policy Erin Egan hosted a live event today concerning the latest changes to its privacy policy in response to an audit by the Irish government.Continue reading...

Sprint has been moving into more specialized mobile content in recent years, such as the Sprint NBA Mobile offering designed to bring playoffs action direct to fans' smartphones. Now Reuters reports that Sprint has another plan to please mobile customers: “a new mobile advertising policy to reassure customers that they have control over whether or not they receive ads on their cell phone.”

When announcing the update to its mobile ad policy on Tuesday at an annual wireless showcase, Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse pointed out that consumers don’t really have a whole lot of trust for mobile operators. "Even cable and oil industries rate higher with consumers than we do," Hesse stated. "It's very troubling." 

Also troubling for Hesse personally is that he is taking a $3.25 million cut to his paycheck in order to appease shareholders, who are upset that he’s been reelected to the board and concerns that the company may have overpaid Apple for the rights to sell the iPhone.

"I do not want ... to penalize Sprint employees for the company's investment with Apple, so I will forego this adjustment to my compensation," Hesse, who still has $12.35 million in salary, bonuses and stock-based compensation, said in a letter to shareholders on Friday, according to CNN.com.