As Twitter continue to expand their micro-blogging network globally, they've come into certain difficulties and cultural differences as they launch in new international territories. As a result, Twitter have announced new rules which could effectively mean Tweets in the future will be censored.

But what does this mean for you? Shiny Shiny's Becca Caddy sheds some light on the issue below.

Ever since it was first launched back in 2006 (THAT long ago!?) Twitter has been open and free for all of its users, regardless of of any issues of censorship or local problems in their home countries.

Well this week Twitter has announced that in the future that may no longer be the case, and if the micro-blogging platform is required by law to censor tweets, it will. Although it claims this will be on a country-by-country basis, many have been suggesting that those living in Europe and the US are likely to be most affected.

Here's the official explanation from the Twitter blog:

"As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are similar but, for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content.

"Until now, the only way we could take account of those countries' limits was to remove content globally. Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country -- while keeping it available in the rest of the world. We have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld."

In many ways this shouldn't (don't hold us to that) affect most users and the blog post does go on to say that if your tweet has been censored you'll be alerted straight away and hopefully told what caused the issue (and hopefully why). Twitter also assures us all that it's working closely with a blog monitoring company, which specialises in online censorship, so you'd hope only the most problematic tweets will be weeded out.

It may seem scary to think our tweets could be censored in the future and Twitter is likely to face a lot of criticism in coming weeks. However, you only have to look at recent super-injunctions in the UK to learn that in actual fact there are many things we can't talk about in the street on a daily basis, so should we really be able to openly talk about those issues online?

The problem lies in the fact that there's a very fine line between restricting people from talking about serious issues that have legal implications and censoring things just because it's now possible. Let's hope Twitter works closely with each country as it promises and they all figure out where that line is.

[Image via Yoshiffles]

Media mogul and News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch has taken to his recently-opened Twitter account to attack search-giants Google, accusing them of enabling internet pirates and profiting in the process.

In a tirade that also pulled in Barrack Obama, the multi-billionaire criticised the president for supporting Google on some terms of the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, which, if passed, could see widespread censorship of the internet in an attempt to protect against copyright infringement.

So Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery," said Murdoch.

"Piracy leader is Google who streams movies free, sells advts around them. No wonder pouring millions into lobbying. Film making risky as hell. This has to lead to less, hurting writers, actors, all concerned," he added (without making mention of the fair few bob his News Corp. makes through the ownership of 20th Century Fox too).

To illustrate his point, Murdoch used Google to search for free streaming sites on which to view the latest Mission Impossible film, Ghost Protocol.

"Just been to google search for Mission Impossible. Wow, several sites offering free links. I rest my case," said the ageing media giant.

Murdoch did however spare a few kind words for Google:

"Google great company doing many exciting things. Only one complaint, and it's important."

Google, not taking Murdoch's accusations lightly, hit back with a statement calling the rant "nonsense"

"Last year we took down 5 million infringing web pages", said Google spokesperson Samantha Smith.

"Like many other tech companies, we believe that there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking US companies to censor the Internet."

Rupert Murdoch, the powerful and often controversial head of media powerhouse News Corporation, has joined Twitter.

The ageing media baron has managed to rack up a whopping 80,000 followers in the short time since joining the micro-blogging service on New Year's Eve, despite a damaging 2011 which saw him facing phone hacking allegations on behalf of a number of his media outlets.

Although initially thought to be a hoax account, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has since confirmed Murdoch's arrival, posting that "With his own voice, in his own way, @RupertMurdoch is now on Twitter."

However, not everyone has welcomed Murdoch's arrival on the social network, with many sending the media mogul messages with the hashtag "#wanker" attached to them.

Perhaps the best put-down of all however came from Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. He tweeted: "Welcome to Twitter ... @rupertmurdoch. I've left you a Happy New Year message on my voicemail!"

To follow Murdoch, check out his Twitter page found at twitter.com/rupertmurdoch.

Lady Gaga is the latest celebrity to see her social networking accounts hacked by scammers.

One of the true "Twitterati" with over 17 million Twitter followers and 45 million Facebook "Likes", the Bad Romance star fell foul to a hack that saw her fans lured towards a fake iPad 2 giveaway.

Unbeknownst to the singer, her Twitter account posted the message; ""Monsters, I'm giving away FREE iPad2's to each one of you in the spirit of the holidays :)", a seemingly genuine post, considering she uses the name "monsters" to refer to her fanbase.

However, the message also contained a link to a dodgy Blogspot site (which has since been removed) that collected the personal details of her fans.

A similar attack was made on her Facebook account. Two posts were made, one reading "Lady Gaga's new iPad comes out in 3 days!" and another that said: "So for the next 72 hours we will be hosting a massive giveaway to all the Mother Monster fans. Sign up and receive your special Lady Gaga edition iPad in time for the Holidays! For contest rules and registration visit the link below."

Likewise, these links were also scams. Gaga has since re-gained control of her accounts, posting "Phew. The hacking is over! And just in time, I'm on my way to Japan! So excited to spend Xmastime with my TokyoMonsters!"

Lady Gaga would have been quite out of pocket had the offer been real. Had she given each of her Twitter and Facebook fans a free iPad 2, as the posts suggested she would, she'd have racked up a whopping bill from Apple in the region of $25 billion!

Via: BBC

Twitter have confirmed a new $300 million investment has been made into their micro-blogging social network by Saudi prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud.

A move that's taken many web analysts by surprise, the Saudi royal is founder and CEO of Kingdom Holding Company, and is one of the richest people in the world.

A statement from the prince's people reveals that the investment came after "several months of negotiations and comprehensive due diligence".

Alwaleed himself stated that: "Our investment in Twitter reaffirms our ability in identifying suitable opportunities to invest in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact."

Reports are now stating that a 3 percent stake in Twitter has been bought.

Kingdom Holding has numerous high profile tech investments, including eBay, Apple, AOL, Motorola and Amazon. They also hold a 7% stake in News Corp.

Via: Tech Crunch

No matter what FPS it is people will find a way to exploit it, instead of looking down their iron sights there will always be gamers trying to beat the system, well EA has got something for these people, a big banhammer.

Battlefield 3 is the latest FPS to become victim to cheaters exploiting glitches in the multiplayer portion of the game. Players have found a way of cheating the points system, flipping a vehicle while keeping another player inside, causing unlimited damage then the player can simply sit outside and repair until they are top of the leader board without even firing a shot.

The Battlefield 3 Twitter account has been bombarded with angry gamers demanding that EA sort the glitch so they can get on with enjoying their game. To which EA has responded with, "I assure you, we don't tolerate cheating and exploiting! We've already banned and stats-wiped many accounts, and still going."

On a much better note, EA also confirmed via Twitter that a patch is on the way to solve many of the issues plaguing the game. Among the tweeks will be to lessen the power of the tactical flashlight add-on, which essentially blinded any player it was pointed at. There was no confirmation of a date for this patch to land but EA said it was just around the corner.

This follows on from a continuing trend for FPS's to be a breeding ground for people to try and get to the top without putting in the man hours the most famous of which came with Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and the infamous nuke boosters.

It's nice to see the issue being addressed very quickly by EA, trying to give their gamers the most realistic war experience without having to physically walk into a Middle Eastern country and have bullets shot at you.

Or at least it's making us lazy, opting for shorter words instead of long ones.

73% of us believe that Twitter and text messaging is changing the use of the English language, according to a survey presented in a book by JP Davidson called "Planet Word".
Too bad for "balderdash", as you really don't hear that often enough as it is, but language is evolving, and brevity is becoming a virtue.

"Language is always evolving and great descriptive words are being lost", said Davidson, but added that others emerge to take their place. "It's natural with people trying to fit as much information into 140 characters that words are getting shortened and are even becoming redundant as a result."

Davidson's book is being published as a tie-in with Stephen Fry's new series, also called Planet Word.

Here are JP Davidson's top 15 rarely-used words:
1 - Bally
2 - Laggard
3 - Felicitations
4 - Rambunctious
5 - Verily
6 - Salutations
7 - Betwixt
8 - Lauded
9 - Arcane
10 - Raconteur
11 - Cad
12 - Betrothed
13 - Cripes
14 - Malaise
15 - Quash

[via Daily Mirror]

Three is the magic number, says Twitter-founder Jack Dorsey. Using the appropriately succinct medium that is Twitter, @jack said: "Nokia: you make too many phones. Focus on 3."

This comes as Nokia introduces its new "basic smartphones", called Asha, and its higher end Windows phones, the Lumia. At least these ones have proper names so we can try and remember them, but look at the Lumia: there's the 710 and the 800, both launched at the same time. That's just one example but it's safe to say that overall, there's a lot going on over at Nokia. Meaning it feels like a bit of a ... project, to choose which phone is right for you.

Because Jack Dorsey's camp is where the cool kids are at: minimalism, and sleek, simple design. Just look at Apple, with its phone, singular. It's the iPhone, end of story. There's all sorts of research that shows that given too much choice, people get overwhelmed and walk away with nothing.

Let's wait and see how Nokia does with its new phone family, but if it doesn't turn around soon, it may be time to get one of those cheeky newcomers in to shake it up. Annoying as it would be for Nokia executives to take advice from boys so freshly out of puberty, but still.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has revealed that Twitter sign-ups have tripled following the launch of Apple's iOS 5 mobile OS for iPad, iPod and iPhone.

iOS 5 features deep integration of the micro-blogging social network, and is being credited for the recent boost in Twitter user numbers.

Costolo, speaking at the Web 2.0 summit taking place now in San Francisco also revealed that the service now plays host to around 250,000,000 tweets every day. That's a quarter of a billion messages every 24 hours.

Costolo acknowledged that the growing volume of tweets brings with it its own challenges.

"We've got to figure out how to capture the volume at the same time as separating the signal from the noise," he said.

"We think that we can be on 2 billion devices around the world, and reach every person on the planet, and the way to do that is through simplifying."

Are you a new Twitter user? Was iOS 5 your introduction to the micro-blogging craze? Let us know!

Via: Tech Crunch

Twitter have managed to gain control over the word "Tweet", bagging the trademark after a lengthy legal battle with Twittad.

Both Twitter and Twittad claimed to own the phrase. Twittad, who provide sponsored advertising via Twitter have their tagline "Let me add your tweets" trademarked, with other versions of the line also trademarked.

However, Twitter claim to have poularised the term long before Twittad used it in their own marketing.

A settlement has now resolved the dispute, with Twittad transfering the "Tweet" trademark to Twitter, according to the Wall Street Journal.

"We've arrived at a resolution with Twittad that recognises consistent use of Tweet while supporting the continued success of Twitter ecosystem partners like Twittad," said Twitter spokesperson Lynn Fox in response to the news.

Facebook users will soon be able to update their Twitter feeds directly from their Facebook profile pages.

The cross-posting feature was revealed in Facebook's September 2011 update of its Subscribe for Public Figures document. Underneath the heading "Can I update my Twitter followers from Facebook?" was this response:

Link your profile or Page to your Twitter account. Once you link your accounts, your Twitter account will be updated every time you post a public update to Facebook. Note: Only posts whose privacy you set to Public using your inline controls are eligible for this.

An important move then, and one that shows a sign of mutual respect between the two social networks. Twitter, in the grand scheme of things, isn't a threat to the core audience of Facebook, who don't necessarily need #hashtags and real time trends to get on with their lives online. However, the move shows that Zuckerberg's gang except that there's a substantial amount of their users that now need a Twit tipple just as desperately as they do their Facebook fix.

It's surely to be as beneficial to the users as it is both networks, especially Facebook who will no longer see so many users jumping over the online fence into the Twitter garden, further making everything social available under one roof from the House of Zuckerberg.

It'll be interesting to see if Google make a similar move with Plus in the near future.

We've already seen two great examples this morning of how social media can be used as a force for good in the wake of the London riots (check here and here), but this one will perhaps re-affirm your faith in the UK public more than any other.

Volunteers, fuelled by the creation of the #riotcleanup Twitter hashtag set up by "artist, writer, photographer and explorer"Dan Thompson, are taking to the streets to help with the clean-up following the destructive events of the past three nights of looting and violence.

Thompson, despite being based in Sussex, has been using the network to organise clear-up teams in the areas hit hardest by the riots. He's even been taking requests from small business owners who need help after attacks, and has been directing help their way.

Describing the response as "phenomenal", Thompson stated that "teams of volunteers have been out since the early hours" and that his teams were "already getting responses back saying that areas are clear."

Celebrities too have been using their position of influence to help in the efforts. Musician Kate Nash was among the first to offer her support for the #riotcleanup, while Sam Duckworth of Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly and actor Simon Pegg have also spread the word.

Dedicated websites and Twitter accounts for the clean up, such as Riot Clean Up, @riotcleanup and the Post riot-clean up Facebook page, have now been created to help organise the movement.

Twitter's fortunes continue to grow, after the latest round of valuations for the microblogging service see it now worth $8 billion (circa £4.9 billion).

This follows news that Russian investment firm DST paid $400 million for a 5% stake in the celeb-favoured web service.

With Twitter looking to "aggresssively innovate", it is no thought that no public listing will be made for Twitter until at least 2013.

"We've come very far in a short time," reads a statement on the Twitter corporate blog.

"Now we have an opportunity to expand Twitter's reach with a significant round of funding led by the venture firm DST Global, with the participation of several of our existing investors.

"We will use these resources to aggressively innovate, hire more great people and invest in international expansion."

Despite the growth of its influence, a powerful, large user-base and continued investment however, Twitter has revenues of just around $130 million.

Via: FT

You may keep your personal details to yourself, as well as your gender, location and political afflictions. But it doesn't matter - the internet knows who you are. It may not be able to figure out your name, but when it comes to the other stuff, to what makes you tick, the internet indeed knows.

This was the conclusion when the Mitre Corporation conducted a little study. The researchers fed a host of anonymous tweets into a computer, which had been programmed with the knowledge of which words were most likely to be used by men, and which were likely to be spoken by women. The result? The computer could guess the person's gender 75.8% of the time. This was when the computer could read a person's entire Twitter stream - when constricted to reading only one tweet, the accuracy dropped to 65.9%.

Obviously, this is not a hard and fast rule. Women don't tweet about puppies and chocolate all day (and those who are letting the side down), but according to the art of socio-linguistics, there are definitely patters to how men and women speak. Did you know women tend to laugh more? And use more exclamation points! Computers can be programmed with this knowledge to help researchers find patterns.

Another feature of the study was when the researchers added the phrase "my" in front of certain words. This enlightening little chart shows how likely someone would be to be a Democrat or Republican based on this:

In spite of how it feels at times, Twitter is not a microcosm of life, so the findings are not entirely reflective of the real world. But advertisers may take an interest in this, as it will give them a decent shot at figuring out who we are and what we want in the murky waters of the web. So next time you trot around the internet in your anonymous disguise discussing the merits of Etsy versus Folksy, be aware: they are on to you.

The 2012 London Olympic Games are nearly upon us! In just under a year's time the game's opening ceremony will kick off proceedings, with the world's most elite athletes decending on the capital, sights set on the gold.

To mark the countdown, the 2012 team have opened the doors of the 2012 Olympic Twitter Stadium, where fans from around the globe can show their digital support for each nation's competitors by leaving a tweeted message.

Click here to have a look.

There's even a leaderboard to see which country have the most vocal fans. Currently Team Great Britain are sitting in 2nd place, making up 16% of all the tweets sent so far, behind Brazil with 24% and ahead of the USA who have 12%.

It's unlikely the GB team will top the USA in the real medals table, but we could pip them to the podium here, so get tweeting!

Microsoft have sparked an angry repsonse from fans of the late soul singer Amy Winehouse, as the Redmond-based company appeared to be cashing in on the stars death by plugging their own Zune music service.

Tweeting from the official Xbox 360 Twitter account @tweetbox360, the company urged gamers to buy Winehouse's second album through the console's music portal.

"Remember Amy Winehouse by downloading the ground-breaking 'Back to Black' over at Zune", read the Tweet.

However, coming just 24 hours after Winehouse passed away, many read the tweet as a mercenary move by Microsoft. Incensed fans were quick to demonise the firm.

Microsoft were quick to re-affirm their intent:

"Apologies to everyone if our earlier Amy Winehouse download tweet seemed purely commercially motivated. Far from the case we assure you.

With Amy W's passing, the world has lost a huge talent. Our thoughts are with Amy's family and friends at this very sad time."

Amy Winehouse was found dead at her Camden home in North London on Saturday. She was just 27 years old. Winehouse's funeral is expected to take place in a London synagogue today, soon after the stars' death and in-keeping with her Jewish roots.

It's a reflection of how quickly media is changing.

Before the story was was announced on mainstream media websites - a little over an hour after the police had found Winehouse dead in her north London flat - micro-blogging site Twitter was already responding to the death of the singer.

Amy Winehouse quickly became one of Twitter's trending topics, representing nearly 10 per cent of all tweets worldwide - with approximately 20million people communicating with one another about her death.

Related story:
Why #NOTW hasn't been trending on Twitter

You can read the full story on Shiny Style

Twitter have announced that the "Tweet's Per Second" record was smashed this weekend following a nail biting final between Japan and the USA. Tweets surrounding the final, as well as all the other thoughts of Twitter users around the globe, reached 7,196 in a second.

It sails past the previous record of 6,939 at the moment Japan saw in the New Year in 2011.

"New Tweets per second records! End of the #wwc final: 7196 TPS. And today's end to the Paraguay/Brazil game is now 2nd with 7166 TPS," stated Twitter's official feed.

Even the President himself got in on the Tweetng action, posting;

"Incredible performance from #USWNT, no matter what happens. Now on to penalties. Let's win this."

If the Women's World Cup final seems an unusual event to push the new record, in comparision to say the regular World Cup finals, the incredible rate at which Twitter is growing should be taken into account. Just last week over 600,000 new users signed up the service in a single day. Expect to see this record smashed on a regular basis until Twitter's growth slows.

Another day, another story about someone deciding to "quit" email. It seems it's very stressful, getting all these messages, and apparently this is a feeling "everyone" shares. Oh really?

Yes, I know what it's like to have thousands of unanswered emails in my inbox, looming large. And more than a few times I've started the day answering emails, only to look up and find the morning has gone already. This is why I have implemented rules for my email inbox: a few filters, some vigorous unsubscribing, and a frankly brilliant tactic that means turning the bloody thing off when I am on deadline. But quitting email altogether? Madness.

It brings to mind the time Kramer, the star of the strangely underrated sit-com "Seinfeld", decided to quit post. Infuriated with the amount of catalogues he was receiving, he boarded up his mail slot and decided to go off the grid. It didn't go so well - because however we feel about the post, electronic or otherwise, we need a way for people to get hold of us.

Consider the alternatives. Twitter is often suggested, but it's not exactly great for communicating as it's short, and very public. You can't exactly forward documents to people via Twitter, or inform your boss you need an hour off to go to the doctor again because that rash won't go.

Then what? The post? We can't go back there, it's consigned to history. The only thing I ever receive in the post are packets from Amazon, that free paper from the council that no one reads, and bank statements - I had to change these back to paper as I was denied a Russian visa because I could not prove where I live (true story).

So then, this means if you give up email you are left with the phone. Talk about disruptive - having that thing going off all day, cornering you with requests that need to be answered immediately. One day we will all be sufficiently cloud-based to rely on Twitter to swap links to documents stored elsewhere, but that day is years away. In the meantime you are just going to have to find a way of dealing with that bursting inbox. At least you can comfort yourself with the fact that unlike the phone, with email at least you have the option of hitting "delete".

BBC's head-honchos are considering issuing guidelines on how their writers and acting talent should use the micro-blogging service Twitter, and potentially putting a ban on its usage, following a series of revealing tweets hit the social network.

Numerous leaks have included Thick of It creator Armando Iannucci revaling details on the next series ahead of time, Sophie Ellis Bextor revealing that she was to feature alongside Sting on Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's Life's Too Short and Stephen Mangan announcing that a second series of Dirk Gently had been commissioned.

Now BBC contracts may explicitly state what can and cannot be said on Twitter.

"There's no doubt that Twitter is a popular communications phenomenon but it can also be quite disruptive if artists tweet about an appearance on a show or announce a new commission before the broadcaster is ready to go with the story." said an anonymous BBC Vision employee to the Guardian.

"Broadcasters can have a number of reasons for wanting to delay press announcements, such as the deal not being done or contracts not being signed or, indeed, the broadcaster wanting to make a big splash with a great story at a particularly opportune moment. A random tweet can rob an artist of his or her potentially much louder fanfare."

The BBC already currently issues formal guidelines to its staff on the appropriate use of Facebook pages in an attempt to keep Zuckerberg's network free of spoilers and damaging leaks.

Via: The Guardian