Illegal content should be forcibly demoted in web searches, a group of UK rights holders has suggested.

The organisations argued that search sites were “overwhelmingly” directing users to illegal content.
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Twitter has announced that it now has the technology to selectively block tweets on a country by country basis.

In its blog, Twitter said it could “reactively withhold content from users in a specific country”. [Read full story...]

In a privacy policy shift, Google announced that it will begin tracking users universally across all its services—Gmail, Search, YouTube and more—and sharing data on user activity across all of them. So much for the Google we signed up for.

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Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom’s online profile was larger-than-life, with fast women, faster cars and chartered planes, yet he lived like a virtual recluse in a sprawling, manicured estate on the outskirts of New Zealand’s biggest city, Auckland.

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The arrest of Megaupload’s founders has led to other file storage sites taking action in an apparent attempt to protect themselves from legal action.

Filesonic has disabled its sharing functions, allowing users to access only their own files. [To know more...]

Google and Microsoft are playing a game of football in a stadium called Search. And Google doesn’t think they’re actually playing a game, or if they do, they aren’t worried about Microsoft gaining any significant yardage. Kind of like the way Alabama beat LSU earlier this week.

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The founder of file-sharing website Megaupload has appeared in a New Zealand court seeking bail.

German national Kim Dotcom – also known as Kim Schmitz – was arrested with three others in Auckland on Friday in a raid requested by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. [Read more...]

An Indonesian man who said that God did not exist in a posting on a Facebook page for atheists could face jail.

Civil servant Alexander Aan, 31, is now in protective police custody after he was attacked by an angry mob earlier this week. [To know more...]

Megaupload, one of the internet’s largest file-sharing sites, has been shut down by officials in the US.

The site’s founders have been charged with violating piracy laws. [Read more...]

Supporters of the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA (and its Senate-sister the Protect Intellectual Property Act, PIPA) legislation — like the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) — argue that legislation is needed because online piracy puts jobs and industries at risk. [Read full story...]