The Internet was built on freedom of expression. Society wants someone held accountable when that freedom is abused. And major Internet companies like Google and Facebook are finding themselves caught between those ideals.

Google Inc and No. 2 U.S. satellite TV operator Dish Network Corp are jointly testing a television programing search service, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Four in five adults believe access to the Internet is a fundamental right — with those feelings particularly strong in South Korea and China — and half believe it should never be regulated, according to a global survey.
A poll of 27,000 adults in 26 countries for the BBC World Service showed 78 percent of Internet users believed the Web gave them greater freedom, while nine in 10 said it was a good place to learn.

Militant groups, foreign states and criminal organizations pose a growing threat to U.S. security as they target government and private computer networks, FBI Director Robert Mueller said on Thursday.

Opera Software said on Wednesday it had seen a surge in downloads of its browser after Microsoft started making it easier for Europeans to choose smaller rivals’ browsers.

The adult-entertainment industry is in a tailspin, shattering the notion that it is one of the few recession-proof industries. The slump is especially stinging because technology — which helped adult-entertainment enterprises reap riches through innovations such as video streaming, webcameras and online payments — is contributing to the misery.

Germany’s highest court on Tuesday overturned a law that let anti-terror authorities retain data on telephone calls and e-mails, saying it marked a “grave intrusion” into personal privacy rights and must be revised. The court ruling was the latest to sharply criticize a major initiative by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government and one of the strongest steps yet defending citizen rights from post-Sept. 11 terror-fighting measures.

The United States, pushing to promote global Internet freedom, on Tuesday declassified some of its initiatives on safeguarding government networks as it pursues partnerships in the effort. The move comes as Washington has become more vocal in opposing other governments’ censorship of the Internet and presses its argument that Internet access is a basic human right to express and gather online.

Mobile phone operators must now limit how much they charge customers for using the Internet within the European Union, after new rules went into effect Monday.
Customers have until July 1 to set a maximum monthly cost with their network, and those who do not will by default have a €50 ($68) limit set.

Internet peut-il encore déraper ? Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, secrétaire d’État à l’Économie numérique, a installé, mercredi 24 février, un comité d’experts sur la “neutralité du Net”. La doctrine française en la matière, qui sera définie avec l’aide du nouveau collège, aura des conséquences sur la libre concurrence, mais aussi sur la liberté d’expression et sur la vie privée. Une consultation publique aura lieu prochainement sur cet enjeu stratégique pour l’avenir d’Internet, qui ne peut a priori que séduire les amoureux du Web.