Internet News

Chinese regulators have taken a wide-ranging war against online porn one step further by closing a series of popular BitTorrent and other video-sharing Web sites in recent days. Full Story »

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - Online social networking pioneer Friendster has accepted a buyout from Malaysia-based MOL Global, the companies announced Thursday, saying the site would shift into e-commerce. Full Story »

Microblogging services are taking off among China's fast-growing Internet population, but regulation by an authoritarian government is challenging their growth. Full Story »

Facebook's revamped privacy settings will push more user data onto the Internet and, in some cases, make privacy protection harder for Facebook users, digital civil liberties experts said. Full Story »

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook, the world's No.1 Internet social network, took a step toward opening up parts of its site to outsiders on Wednesday by introducing a broad revision of its users' privacy settings. Full Story »

Clearwire customers in a handful of locations were unable to get online for several hours due to a network outage late Tuesday. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (AFP) - As struggling US newspaper and magazine publishers look for ways to make money online, Hollywood trade journal Variety has announced plans to begin erecting a "pay wall" around its website. Full Story »

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Bruce Springsteen has come out in support of gay marriage in his home state of New Jersey, where a marriage equality bill will go to vote this week. The rocker released a statement via his official Web site Wednesday backing the legislation. Full Story »

Google Labs has launched an innovative news-reporting experiment in partnership with The New York Times and The Washington Post. Called Living Stories, the venture aggregates related content on specific news topics onto dedicated web pages that are continuously updated. Full Story »

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Cisco and British telecom giant BT Group on Wednesday announced a partnership aimed at a growing hunger by businesses worldwide for Internet-based communications services. Full Story »

The growing demand for online applications could push the number of mobile devices accessing the Internet past 1 billion by 2013, IDC said in a survey issued on Wednesday. Full Story »

LOS ANGELES - The Hollywood trade newspaper Variety is putting its Web site behind a "pay wall" starting Thursday — reserving its online content for paid subscribers and hoping its advertisers will stick around despite the smaller Internet audience. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - Five Transportation Security Administration employees have been placed on administrative leave since it was discovered that sensitive guidelines about airport passenger screening were posted on the Internet. Full Story »

As users eagerly await tablets from companies like Apple and Microsoft, Fusion Garage jumped ahead with the demonstration of JooJoo, a handheld Internet and entertainment gadget with a 12.1-inch touch screen. Full Story »

BERLIN (AFP) - Germany's Axel Springer on Wednesday became the latest media giant to announce moves to try and make more money online after years of the Internet eating away at their revenues. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US senators called Wednesday for a swift probe into the release on the Internet of a highly sensitive airport security screening guide, which one lawmaker likened to a "textbook" for terrorists. Full Story »

NEW YORK - AT&T Inc. is boosting its top available broadband speeds in Austin, Texas, San Antonio and St. Louis in preparation for a wider rollout. Full Story »

Symantec, which rolled out Norton Online Backup as a standalone service earlier this year, is giving it a major overhaul that adds a bunch of attractive features and fixes some limitations of the original version. Full Story »