censorship

The number of people online in China is 52% greater than the entire U.S. population. But don't expect that many U.S. Internet companies will benefit from those 485 million Chinese Internet users. The sky-high stock valuations on China's native firms highlight their strong local advantage.

Craigslist has blocked access to its racy adult-services ads and marked them as "censored" after 17 state attorney generals asked the company to remove the listings. Will the decision to block -- instead of remove -- the ads put Craigslist on the hook for refunds?

Want a new cell-phone number in China? Be prepared to show your ID. Starting Wednesday, new rules require everyone who buys a new cell-phone number in the country to register their personal details -- even foreigners on short visits. Is this another sign of tightening government control over communication technologies?

Google's headaches in China just won't go away. Chinese news agency Xinhua has teamed up with the country's largest telecom carrier, China Mobile, to create a new search and international media company.

Research In Motion is willing to block adult websites and allow governments to monitor messages so it can avoid official bans on the use BlackBerry devices.

Various forms of America media are shut down in overseas countries with some regularity. The Wall Street Journal in Singapore off and on, Google in China. Now Research In Motion is facing a ban of some of its services, in the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia said it would follow suit.

When the FCC decided in 2004 to start fining broadcasters over the use of fleeting expletives, the agency became a caricature of a state censor. Now, the Second Circuit has ruled that the 'indecency' policy was unconstitutionally vague. So what's next for dirty words?

Chinese social networking and microblogging sites that provide services similar to Twitter have reverted to test mode or proved difficult to access amid a seeming clampdown from government authorities. Sites such as NetEase.com Inc's microblog (t.163.com) and Sohu.com Inc's microblog (t.sohu.com)...

In a major victory for TV networks, an appeals court struck down the Federal Communications Commission's indecency policy on Tuesday, calling it "unconstitutionally vague." The court also said the rules posed a risk to freedom of speech.

Pakistan plans to monitor Google and its YouTube site, as well as Yahoo, Amazon, and Microsoft's MSN, Hotmail and Bing for anti-Islamic content, saying it will block links to certain content on those sites if it deems it necessary.