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]

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

The rules concerning sending direct messages on Twitter may be about to change for businesses, according to The Next Web.

Currently Direct Messaging is limited to people who mutually follow each other. However, at least two brands now allow direct messages from users that they don't directly follow.

While the lack of user verificiation before a DM is sent would not be suitable if rolled out to all users (just imagine the amount of spam you'd be exposed to) for brands and businesses it makes perfect sense: brands could run competitions where the answers to a question aren't broadcast to the world, while a business could run private support for their customers, whether the follow each other or not.

No official word from Twitter so far, but this new enterprise feature is apparently already live, so expect to see more brands and businesses roll it out in the near future.

While we've never been all that convinced that leaving your lights on while you go on holiday is the best deterrent against burglars (who needs an expensive energy bill right after shelling out for an exotic week-long break, eh?), we've decided it's no crazier than the latest venture from Precreate Solutions.

They're offering a "social networking concierge" service, manning your Facebook and Twitter accounts while you're on holiday, shooting off prosaic updates in an attempt to fool burglars into thinking you've never left your house at all.

Director Gary Jackson came up with the idea after hearing about a growing trend for burglars to spy on Facebook accounts for potential break-in targets.

"Putting up a Facebook posting of photographs on a beach to 300-400 'friends' is like leaving an advert on your door to a burglar telling him when you will be out. We are now going to run clients' social media while they are away to give an appearance that there is still a presence at their homes and business premises," said Jackson.

The service comes free as a part of Precreate Solutions' other security offerings, who already have 40 members signed up.

It does seem a tad excessive though. With Facebook and Twitter's privacy settings tight enough to restrict everyone but your mates from seeing your posts, surely delving into the privacy settings of each social network and adjusting them before going away should do the trick? That is of course unless your "friends" aren't all that trustworthy to begin with...

Via: Evening Standard

Twitter have announced that they will be launching their own photo-sharing service, allowing users to upload photos to the micro-blogging network without having to first sign up for a third party app.

Speaking at the D9 conference in California, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo announced that Twitter's photo-sharing feature "will remove the friction from adding photos to tweets."

A partnership with photo-hosting specialists Photobucket, the service will be headed to tablet and smartphone applications, as well as the standard Twitter web page.

The news will be a massive blow to the likes of Twitpic and yFrog, wh oi have built entire businesses around the fact that Twitter didn't initially offer this functionality themselves. Twitpic have alreay enraged their users in recent weeks by announcing that changes to the Twitpic user agreement now allow the service to sell uploaded images on to news agenices. Twitter's Costolo has stressed that any images uploaded using the new official service will belong solely to the individual who posted them.

While third-party Twitter photo-sharing apps are quaking in their boots, Facebook are unlikely to be too fussed by Twitter's latest move; Costolo has also stressed that this new service does not aim to compete with the Facebook Photo Album feature, but instead only to attach images to a single tweet.

The news follows rumours that Apple are to include deeper Twitter integration into their forthcoming iOS 5 mobile software.

Twitter will be adding an official "Follow" button to their list of features aimed at helping websites promote their Twitter feeds. Similar to the Facebok "Like" button, it allows a user to track a particular website of person's Twitter feed by a single press of a web button.

According to the Twitter blog, the company expects the button to become the best way for websites to "stay connected" with their social-network savvy audiences.

"More than 50 sites have added the Follow Button today, making it easy for you to discover the Twitter accounts of your favorite reporters, athletes, celebrities, and other personalities," said the Twitter blog.

"Using the Follow Button is as simple as a single click. You can also see the profile and latest Tweets of the account you want to follow by clicking the username next to the Button."

Some websites have already added the button, including AOL.com, About.me, All Time Low, Justin Bieber, bnet.com, Britney Spears, CBS Interactive, CBS News, cbs.com, cbssports.com, chow.com, cnet.com, CNNMoney, Condé Nast, EL PAÍS, Fox News, Fox Business, Fox Sports, Gameone.de, gamespot.com, Glamour, GQ, Greyson Chance, IMDb, Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, LMFAO, MarketWatch, maxpreps.com, moneywatch.com, MTV.co.uk, MTV.com, MTV.de, Multimedios, mysimon.com, Radio.com, Ryan Seacrest, Shockwave.com, smartplanet.com, Sports Illustrated, techrepublic.com, Teen Vogue, TF1, The Huffington Post, The Telegraph, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Tr3s.com, tv.com, TVGuide.com, Vanity Fair, WAT.tv, Wired, WordPress.com, Yahoo! Local, and zdnet.com.

Adding the button to your website is as simple as placing a short piece of HTML code on your website, which can be found by clicking here.

Apple's next piece of mobile softwrae, iOS 5, may make it easier than ever for people to share images via the micro-blogging network Twitter. Rumours are flying around the web today that Twitter integration will be a key part of the new menu system developed for the OS.

Multiple sources have told TechCrunch that a "Send to Twitter" function will now be an option within image viewing galleries, similar to the "Send to YouTube" function for videos already present in iOS.

With Twitter said to be planning their own photo-sharing service to rival Twitpic and Yfrog, it seems Apple have jumped onboard the Twitter wagon at just the right moment.

All the iOS rumours floating around at the moment will likely be cleared up at next weel's WWDC conference, where Apple are also expected to launch their cloud-streaming music service too.

The UK government may be floundering as how best to approach the micro-blogging craze Twitter after its recent controversial involvement in a series of high-profile super-injunctions, but US President Barack Obama is approaching the service in a far more pragmatic way.

Obama has asked Twitter CEO Dick Costolo to join him on an advisory commitee on national security in relation to telecommnications. He'll sit on a panel that will include David DeWalt, president of McAfee, and Scott Charney, vice president of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group.

Costolo's appointment follows a White House dinner to which many of the tech illuminati were invited. Apple's Steve Jobs, Google chairman Eric Schmidt and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg were all in attendance alongside Costolo.

Looks as though it'll be a little blue bird on Obama's shoulder whispering things in his ear when it comes to matters concerning online communications in the future then.

Via: Marketwatch

Twitter has seen a steep jump in usage, following the media coverage it recieved after one Twitterer used the micro-blogging platfrom to expose celebrities who had took out super-injunctions against the press.

According to web-traffic analysts Experian Hitwise, Twitter saw a 14% increase in visitors on May 9th, shortly after the super-injunction account was brought to the attention of the masses.

Hitwise also noted a 5,000% increase in searches for the term "super-injunction", illustrating the UK's love for a bit of celebrity dirt.

Though the Twitter account is now closed and has had many of its super-injunction claims proved false, it has opened debate on the feasibility of super-injunctions in the age of viral spreading of information across social networks.

Via: The Independent

A whistleblower on Twitter over the weekend has put the worth of super-injunctions into question, after the micro-blogging platform was used to expose celebrities who had apparently put gagging orders on stories relating to their private lives.

The account, which made claims against Jemima Khan amongst other celebrities, had 25,000 followers last night, but this morning dropped down to just 1, suggesting Twitter have since closed the account.

Many have suggested that super-injunctions are all-but redundant while Twitter goes unpoliced, with the gagging orders currently holding no sway in the online sphere. However, with the precedent set by the Twitter Joke Trial, in which a user was taken to court for casually joking about an airport bomb, the legal establishment could come down hard on Twitter if they don't soon start taking action against such accounts.

For an in-depth commentary on the story, head over to our partner site ShinyShiny.

Samsung are really pushing the extreme elements of their latest handset, the Samsung Galaxy S II, to its limits. First they're sending Tech Digest's very own Gerald hurtling around a rollercoaster for a super speedy unboxing video, and now they're equipping intrepid mountain climbers with the handset too.

As a result, British climber Kenton Cool (yes that is his real, amazing name) has climbed the 29,000 feet of Mount Everest to become the first person to tweet and make a 3G phone call from the rocky summit. He also updated his Facebook page too, and we're really hoping he checked into Places looking for some exclusive Everest deals or a free coffee. There's a Starbucks on every corner right?

"I've climbed Everest before, but have never been able to share the exhilaration and excitement I experience when I reach the top with those back home," he said.

"I unboxed the new Samsung Galaxy S II at base camp and was excited to be able to not only make a 3G connected call home, but also to use all the other great features like updating my Facebook status, tweeting on my journey up and posting a picture to share my moment with friends."

We wonder what roaming charges are like all the way up there?