By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 5:32 AM EST, Fri January 27, 2012 |

(CNN) — Online social networking site Twitter said Thursday it will begin deleting users’ tweets in countries that require it — but it will still keep those deleted tweets visible to the rest of the world.

The move is significant because, until now, the only way Twitter could comply with countries’ limits was to remove the content globally.

Twitter said it will now delete tweets only “reactively” and on a case-by-case basis and will let the affected user know why the content is being withheld.

“We hold freedom of expression in high esteem and work hard not to remove Tweets,” Twitter spokeswoman Jodi Olson wrote in an e-mail to CNN.

“And just to be clear, this is not a change in philosophy and there are still countries to which we will not go,” she said.

As examples of countries where tweets may have to be restricted, Twitter mentioned Germany and France, which ban pro-Nazi content. Twitter will operate in those countries while censoring pro-Nazi tweets, for example.

But some countries are so restrictive with freedom of expression that Twitter can’t exist there at all, the company said.

“One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user’s voice,” Twitter wrote in a blog entry Thursday. “We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent with users when we can’t. The Tweets must continue to flow.”

But one observer said the move is blatant censorship.

“There’s no way around that. But alas, Twitter is not above the law,” according to Jillian York, the director for international freedom of expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which defends free speech and privacy online.

York said she acknowledges that Twitter, like other companies hosting user-generated content, has at some point faced a government order or request to take down content.

“Twitter has two options in the event of a request: fail to comply, and risk being blocked by the government in question, or comply (read: censor). And if they have ‘boots on the ground,’ so to speak, in the country in question? No choice,” she wrote.

The company is simply “doing its best in a tough situation,” she said.
CNN’s Augie Martin contributed to this report.

What Is Meant by Social Media?
Any website that allows people to interact with the site and/or with other people can be classed under the heading of social media. Social media also permits the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Types of social media include blog sites; Internet forums; podcasts; virtual gaming websites; social networking sites, such as Facebook and Bebo; microblog sites, including Twitter; and content communities, such as YouTube and Wikipedia.

How Social Media Developed
Social media has been around for much longer than people imagine. The first electronic bulletin board system (BBS) appeared in the late 1970s, allowing PC users to access discussion boards via a dial-up telephone modem. The earliest commercial online services included CompuServe, Prodigy and AOL. The World Wide Web became publicly available on August 6th, 1991, and by the mid-90s Internet service providers began to spring up around the U.S. Internet forum services like GeoCities became popular, leading to the creation of the first social networking site, SixDegrees, in 1997. In the same year, AOL launched its instant messenger service. Friendster, created in 2002, gained more than three million users in its first month, but was overtaken by MySpace in 2003. Facebook appeared in 2004 and Twitter in 2006.

Dangers of Social Media
Although social media has many benefits, it also carry inherent dangers. Personal information can be easily accessed, leading to crimes like identity fraud and stalking. It is even dangerous to post a message that you are going on vacation, since this is a virtual invitation to come rob your home. Indiscreet communications by armed services personnel can endanger national security, and social networking channels have allegedly been used for coordinating terrorism and spreading sedition.
Social networking has taken the issue of “stranger danger” to a whole new level, since the anonymity of these websites allows a 40-year-old pedophile to pose as a 14-year-old girl to befriend children. Cyber bullying is another problem, with some youngsters having committed suicide as a result.

Social Media Networking Is Addictive
A 2010 survey by the University of Maryland discovered that many young people are completely addicted to social media networking. Messaging services and the Internet act as their primary links to the outside world, and they feel isolated without them. Facebook and texting are now the principal media through which young people communicate with friends and family and organize social activities, so without them a person could become a social outcast.

Social Networking Statistics
As of 2011, Facebook claimed to have 750 million active users worldwide, of which 50 percent logged in on any given day. Between them, they logged around 700 billion minutes each month, each generating on average 90 items of content. An average user had 130 Facebook friends. Around 30 percent of users resided in the U.S., and the majority of users accessed the system via mobile devices. According to a survey conducted by software developers RJMetrics, Twitter had 75 million user accounts at the end of 2009, generating 6.2 million new accounts each month, although 80 percent of account holders had tweeted less than 10 times.

By Carole Simm, eHow Contributor

Smart tips for sharing holiday photos
by Alexandra Chang, Macworld.com Dec 21, 2011 6:30 am

By now you’ve probably attended a couple holiday get togethers—maybe even hosted one yourself—and have had plenty of photo opportunities by the tree, at dinner with friends and family, or out in the winter landscape. And once the holidays hit, that means even more memorable shots of the kids opening presents and dad devouring latkes. Instead of storing those photos within the confines of your camera’s memory card, you’ll probably want to share them with family and friends.

Check out the rest of this helpful article… Smart Tips for Sharing Holiday Photos

Don’t risk losing followers on you Facebook and Twitter this holiday…Keep them interested by blogging, tweeting and posting on Facebook daily! No time? That’s ok…we’ll do it for you!

By Samantha Murphy, Mashable
Fri December 2, 2011

(Mashable) — Americans are going online to pass the time more than they were just a few years ago, according to a new study.

A report from Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that about 53% of young adults ages 18 to 29 go online on any given day for no particular reason except for a diversion or just for fun. About 81% of people in this demographic said they have done so at least occasionally.
The study — conducted among 2,260 adults ages 18 and over on landlines and cellphones — has a margin of error of 3.7%.

But it’s not just young web users that turn to the Internet during their down time — about 58% of all adults or 74% of online adults said they use the Internet this way, up from 45% of adults who said they did so in a Pew survey conducted in 2006. Pew noted that the growth of people using the Internet as a “destination for fun” coincides with the rise of broadband connections, social networking and video.

The trend also suggests that the Web is becoming a competitor to other kinds of other leisure activities.

“These findings are one of our main signs about how deeply Internet use has woven itself into the rhythms of people’s lives,” lead author Lee Rainie told Mashable.

“When they have some down time, more and more of them are finding the Internet a fun, diverting place to spend their leisure moments. It’s not necessarily surprising to see that this is a favorite pastime of young adults. It is a bit surprising to see that the incidence of this use has grown in every age demographic. The Internet is not just the playground of the young.”

The study did not ask respondents specifically how they are spending their time online for fun.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — More than half of all workers plan to do some of their holiday shopping while on the clock Cyber Monday, which is expected to bring in record online sales this year.

The majority, or 58.4%, of workers with Internet access at the office — or 75.9 million people — plan to take a break from their day-to-day duties to get some shopping done next Monday, according to Shop.org’s eHoliday survey released Monday.

Last year’s Cyber Monday was the most popular online shopping day of the year with sales over $1 billion
according to data compiled by online tracking firm ComScore. And this year, even more shoppers are
jumping on the bandwagon. Sales for 2011 are projected to hit a record
$1.2 billion, Andrew Lipsman,ComScore’s industry analyst, said.
The lunch hour, or noon to 1 p.m. will be the busiest time for online shopping that day, Claudia Lombana, a shopping specialist for PayPal. But bosses shouldn’t expect much work to
get done during other times either, she added.

“Productivity will be lower than usual on Cyber Monday because people will
be shopping from their computers all day,” she said.

Evidently, the lure of the online deals will be difficult for many employees to
resist. Eight-in-10 online retailers will have special promotions on Cyber Monday, according to the survey by Shop.org, an online division of the industry group the National Retail Federation.

“In addition to many free shipping promotions, there will be plenty of extra ways to save on Cyber Monday, including percentages off entire sites and online-only sales,” said Shop.org Executive Director Vicki Cantrell in a statement. Most retailers will offer coupons or across-the-board discounts and more
than one-third will have limited-time promotions. Another third will offer free shipping and about 15% will have a free gift with purchase, the Shop.org survey said.

By Jessica Dickler @CNNMoney November 21, 2011: 1:03 PM ET

A release from the company this morning says that Amazon’s much anticipated 7-inch, $199 slate will beginning showing up on customers’ doorsteps a little sooner than anticipated.

“We’re thrilled to be able to ship Kindle Fire to our customers earlier than we expected.” said Amazon’s Kindle VP, Dave Limp in the statement. “Kindle Fire quickly became the bestselling item across all of Amazon.com, and based on customer response we’re building millions more than we’d planned.”

Amazon’s promotional effort of the Kindle Fire, which many believe could be the first substantial challenger to Apple’s iPad in the tablet market, has been closely controlled. For months, Amazon refused to even acknowledge it was developing a tablet. Then, earlier this fall it unveiled a whole new line of Kindles at greatly reduced prices while also introducing the Fire.

The company also announced that its new Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G will ship tomorrow, six days earlier than previously expected. No word yet on whether the Kindle Fire will also be available in retail locations like Best Buy today. Most stores should have stock of the tablets on site by now, but Best Buy’s Web site still lists the Fire as “Coming Soon” and unavailable for in-store pickup.

Written by Eric Mack, cnet.com, November 14, 2011

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