20 Jul 2010 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
Apple has removed an iPhone application based on the infamous ChatRoulette website from their store after concerns over nudity. iChatr allowed users to video chat anonymously with other randomly-selected people. ChatRoulette, a website with similar functionality, came in for criticism after it emerged that a substantial number of users were exposing themselves onscreen or engaging in other questionable behaviour. Apple has previously maintained a strict line on iPhone apps which allow access to nudity or adult content.
16 Jul 2010 | Digital Freedom, Index Index, minipost
The Chinese authorities have ordered 122 websites to remove all traces of pornography or lewd content from their sites or face censorship and prosecution. The content prohibited includes pornographic fiction available for online reading or download. Chinese censorship has been steadily growing and recently hit the headlines over clashes with internet giant Google.
12 Jul 2010 | Index Index, minipost
Two of the United Kingdom’s largest internet service providers (ISPs) have requested a judicial review be launched into the Digital Economy Act. BT and TalkTalk claim that the act, designed to reduce internet piracy, contravenes European Union legislation. They say the act, which was rushed through parliament before the May general election, will force them to disconnect customer subscriptions on copyright grounds. BT and TalkTalk claim the regulations infringe basic rights and freedoms whilst financially disadvantaging larger ISPs because the legislation will not apply to ISPs with less than 400,000 subscribers.
9 Jul 2010 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
China confirms it has renewed Google’s internet licence. Making the announcement on Google’s company blog, chief legal officer David Drummond said:
We are very pleased that the government has renewed our ICP licence and we look forward to continuing to provide web search and local products to our users in China.
Google’s relationship with China has been strained since it announced in March that it would no longer censor its search services in China. Instead it began to redirect Chinese users to Google’s unfiltered Hong Kong site. In a bid to have its licence renewed last month the company redesigned its google.cn landing page. Instead of automatically redirecting them to the Hong Kong site, it now offers them a link to google.hk instead. Google chief legal officer David Drummond defended the change in direction saying that “Without an ICP licence, we can’t operate a commercial website like Google.cn—so Google would effectively go dark in China.”
