-IANS Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Orkut are emerging as an important tool to drive movement against corruption and bring positive change in the society, a survey has revealed. In a nationwide survey conducted amongst the youth of India, nearly 76 percent of youth believe that social media empowers them to bring change to the world we live in. They are convinced that causes for women and movements against corruption can...

-The Hindu   The Communist Party of India has criticised the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government for proposing to impose curbs on freedom of expression claiming the proposed curbs, though indirect, on social networking sites were a blot on the country's image. The defence of Union Communications Minister Kapil Sibal did not hold ground in that there were several laws to punish people spreading communal and anti-national messages through any medium, CPI deputy...

Assailed from all sides, does the UPA really hope to recover its ‘image’ by muzzling online dissent? Kapil Sibal ko gussa kyon aata hai? Butt of online jokes: Politicians in 'tweaked' cinematic avatars. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. The UPA government has made it something of a fine art. Hardly had the ruckus over the decision to open up the retail sector to FDI died down than...

-The Economic Times   US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday said at the Ministerial Conference on Internet Freedom at The Hague in Netherlands that a regulation on internet in some countries has made an environment where ideas are being blocked and conversations are being stifled.  Clinton cited the examples of Syria, Iran and recently Russia where bloggers and internet activists are being targeted. Without naming India, she said that some governments...

-The Hindu   Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, has set off a firestorm of protest by demanding that ‘internet intermediaries' — specifically in this round, four social networking giants, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and Microsoft, which enable hundreds of millions of individual users to publish and share on the worldwide web — remove inflammatory content as well as other text and images that might “offend Indian sensibilities.” As in...