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The media is fuming over Twitters decision to suspend the account of a British journalist who used the micro-blogging site to toss barbs at NBCs decision to time-delay its Olympic coverage over the weekend. The episode raises questions about free speech and corporate control of social media platforms. (Updated, Tuesday 9:30am)

For anyone who missed it, the brouhaha began this morning when sports site Deadspin reported that Twitter had cut off Guy Adams, an LA-based reporter for The Independent.Adams has been a standard bearer for the new #nbcfail hashtag and used his account to rattle off a series of British-inflected tirades about NBCs time delay: Sneak peak my arse;tosspot; Matt Lauer would do well to shut up, wouldnt he? and so on.

Adams apparently crossed a line when he published the email address of NBC executive Gary Zenkel and told followers to Tell him what u think. NBC complained to Twitter and shortly after the micro-blog site suspended Adams account.

Critics have since called attention to the fact that Twitter has partnered with NBCs parent company to promote the games, and suggested that the companies decided to shut down Adams account as an act of reprisal.

In an email message to Adams, Twitter explained the account had been suspended because he had violated terms of service that forbid disclosing private information like a persons telephone number or private email address. Deadspin and others have noted that gary.zenkel@nbcuni.com is a corporate address.

So who is right? Did Adams overstep a boundary or are Twitter and NBC wrongfully censoring a journalist? Well, from a legal point of view, Twitter is in the clear. The companys terms of service make it plain that it can boot users off the site anytime and for any reason.

Twitters moral position is a lot more shaky. Its reason for tossing Adams is flimsy (the email he printed was not private) and, worse, they simply caused him to disappear altogether. If you search @guyadams on Twitter, the company will suggest users with similar handles but the original Guy Adams has simply vanished in the same way that disgraced communists would vanish from Kremlin photographs.

This policy of disappearing people without a trace is unhealthy and something Twitter should reconsider. The site has bravely opposed police gag orders and published a groundbreaking transparency report to highlight government censorship.

In the future, Twitter should show who it is barring from the site and explain why. In the meantime, it should give Guy Adams his account back.

Update: The Telegraph reported Tuesday that NBC claims that it was Twitter who informed their social media department about Adams tweets and informed them how to file a complaint. Meanwhile, respected social media journalist Danny Sullivan has pointed out that Gary Zenkels email address was not widely available. Other are questioning the appropriateness of using Twitter to initiate email bombing. As of Tuesday morning, Twitter has remained silent in the face of what appears to be its biggest PR crisis to date.

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Twitter snuffs an Olympics critic: smart play or censorship?

31-07-2012 16:47 Out promoting their film 'The Campaign,' opening Aug. 10, funnymen Zach Galifianakis and Will Ferrell joke about how they first met. (July 31)

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Ferrell, Galifianaki 'Campaign' for Laughs - Video

The social networking company may dominate the headlines, but not the top line.

Facebook has more users than any service in the world, as they slowly close in on a billion. But when it comes to revenue, many old and new companies are generating more revenue in the digital world than Facebook.

PaidContent assembled a list of the companies generating the most revenue "from digital content, or from the advertising around that content." They released it today and, surprisingly, Facebook is currently sitting at number 11.

Who are the 10 companies ahead of Zuckerberg's empire? Google is the clear leader, but you'll also find old rivals Yahoo, Apple, and Microsoft. The business information players are also strong: Bloomberg, Reed Elsevier (an investor in PaidContent, BTW), and Thompson Reuters. And last but not least, as in all things, don't forget China! Telco China Mobile and general tech player Tencent both make appearances on the top 10.

There is some good news for Facebook, though: they're the only social networking site on the list. You won't find a Tumblr, Twitter, or Pinterest in the top 50 global digital revenue generators.

Not every company makes these numbers easy to access, so in some cases, PaidContent has made educated guesses based on research. They (impressively) explain their methodology for each individual company on the list.

More From The Atlantic

View post:
The 10 (Surprising) Companies That Make More Money Online Than Facebook

The social networking company may dominate the headlines, but not the top line.

Facebook has more users than any service in the world, as they slowly close in on a billion. But when it comes to revenue, many old and new companies are generating more revenue in the digital world than Facebook.

PaidContent assembled a list of the companies generating the most revenue "from digital content, or from the advertising around that content." They released it today and, surprisingly, Facebook is currently sitting at number 11.

Who are the 10 companies ahead of Zuckerberg's empire? Google is the clear leader, but you'll also find old rivals Yahoo, Apple, and Microsoft. The business information players are also strong: Bloomberg, Reed Elsevier (an investor in PaidContent, BTW), and Thompson Reuters. And last but not least, as in all things, don't forget China! Telco China Mobile and general tech player Tencent both make appearances on the top 10.

There is some good news for Facebook, though: they're the only social networking site on the list. You won't find a Tumblr, Twitter, or Pinterest in the top 50 global digital revenue generators.

Not every company makes these numbers easy to access, so in some cases, PaidContent has made educated guesses based on research. They (impressively) explain their methodology for each individual company on the list.

More From The Atlantic

View original post here:
The 10 (Often Surprising) Companies That Make More Money Online Than Facebook

Virulent New Flu Subtype Killed New England Seals

July 31, 2012 -- A new and virulent subtype of flu bug has emerged among harbor seals in New England, researchers report.

Over a four-month period beginning last September, 162 harbor seals were found dead or dying along the coast of New England. An investigation by renowned virus hunter W. Ian Lipkin, MD, of Columbia University, identified the killer: a mutant flu bug transmitted to the seals by sea birds.

Virus isolated from the seals had undergone a series of important mutations:

"An additional concern is the potential [animal-to-human] threat that this virus poses, as it has already acquired mutations ... that are often, though not exclusively, regarded as prerequisites for pandemic spread," Lipkin and colleagues note in an article published in mBio, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

The basic type of flu virus isolated from the seals has long been known to science. It's called H3N8. An H3N8 virus that caused flu in horses entered the U.S. in the early 1960s. The canine H3N8 that in 2004 caused a flu outbreak among racing greyhounds apparently came from the horse H3N8. It now spreads easily among dogs.

The good news is that neither the equine H3N8 nor the canine H3N8 flu bugs infect humans. It's unlikely the seal H3N8 virus will spread directly to humans, either.

But Lipkin and colleagues suggest that seals, like pigs, may be able to harbor bird and mammal flu viruses at the same time. The deadly H5N1 bird flu is carried by sea birds. The worry is that mammal-adapted H3N8 will combine with H5N1, and a deadly virus will emerge.

That's only a remote possibility. Yet it's clear that H3N8 viruses already have learned to spread from birds to horses, dogs, and now to seals. And in a controversial experiment with ferrets, researchers have shown that H5N1 bird flu is capable of mutating into a form that spreads among mammals.

The warning from Lipkin carries weight among scientists. Lipkin directs Columbia University's Center for Infection and Immunity. He's also director of the World Health Organization's center on emerging diseases, and is co-chair of the National Biosurveillance Advisory Subcommittee for the CDC.

Read more:
Seal Flu: Next Pandemic Threat?