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Google censorship requests: The United States has asked Google to remove more items from its services than any other government in the world, the search giant revealed Sunday, showing that, in the past six months, the United States has requested the removal of 3,851 items. In second place? Germany, with 1,304.

According to a company blog post, requests from the United States have more than doubled in the past six months for an increase of 103 percent.

Takedown requests from the United States included those for the termination or removal of five YouTube accounts, 1,400 YouTube videos, 218 search results and a blog that allegedly defamed a law enforcement official in a personal capacity.

The report indicates that Google declined to comply to take down the blog post, the videos or the majority of the search results. The company did remove four YouTube accounts, which had around 300 videos, and 25 percent of the search requests.

Facebook to pay $10 million to settle sponsored stories suit: Facebook will pay $10 million in a settlement over its Sponsored Stories feature, which had some users up in arms about their privacy.

Details about Facebooks settlement with users over the social networks use of personal photos and likes emerged Saturday. As the Associated Press reported, some users said that Facebook has used their images for commercial activity. The social network said that the plaintiffs did not show that they were hurt by the feature.

The suit was settled last month, but the terms were not made public until recently.

Microsoft tablet: Microsoft is making a major announcement on Monday suspected to be the revelation of a brand-new tablet.

What, exactly, that tablet will be remains up in the air. The companys push toward Windows 8 has led to speculation that the company will show off its Windows RT tablets. Earlier speculation that Microsoft was going after the Kindle Fire cooled when Barnes and Noble told several media outlets that it would not be participating in the event.

Speculation, then, has centered on the possibility that the technology giant will venture into producing its own tablet hardware to take on Apples market-leading iPad.

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U.S. leads Google censorship requests #thecircuit

Google said censorship requests from India rose 49 percent over the last six months of 2011, compared with January-June, as a debate rages over how to constrain hate speech and copyright violations without curbing legitimate political discourse.

On Monday, Google said that it had received 101 content removal requests from Indian authorities between July and December last year, asking it to delete 255 items from its websites, the Times of India reported. Just five of these requests were made by courts, according to the newspaper.

According to the Google data, the company was asked to remove 130 items, including 77 videos on Youtube, because they were deemed defamatory, the paper said. However, only 25 items out of the total 130 had been deemed defamatory by the court system.

Read about India's partisan debate over online censorship in "Meet the Internet Hindus" on GlobalPost.

Another 25 items, including 24 videos, were considered hate speech.

"This is the fifth data set that we've released. And just like every other time before, we've been asked to take down political speech," the TOI quoted Dorothy Chou, senior policy analyst, as writing on the official Google blog. "It's alarming not only because free expression is at risk, but because some of these requests come from countries you might not suspect Western democracies not typically associated with censorship."

As far as removing the content was concerned, Google said it complied with 80 percent of the requests received from Indian courts. But for requests made by police or other government agencies, it complied in only 26 percent of the cases. "For the six months of data we're releasing today, we complied with an average of 65% of court orders, as opposed to 47% of more informal requests," TOI quotes Chou as writing.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/india/india-google-censorship

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India: Google notes increase in censorship requests

CALGARY , June 18, 2012 /CNW/ - Dr. Brad Thompson , President and CEO of Oncolytics Biotech Inc. (TSX: ONC, NASDAQ:ONCY), will present a corporate overview of the Company at the Bloom Burton & Co. Healthcare Investor Conference on June 21 st, 2012 at 10:30 am ET . The Conference is being held at the Toronto Board of Trade, 1 First Canadian Place, Toronto , Ontario on June 21 st between 8:30 am and 4:30 pm ET .

The Bloom Burton & Co. Healthcare Investor Conference brings together U.S., Canadian and European investors who are interested in the latest developments in the Canadian healthcare sector. Attendees will have an opportunity to obtain corporate updates from the premier Canadian public and private companies through presentations and break-out Q&A sessions.

About Bloom Burton & Co. Bloom Burton & Co. is Canada's largest and most active healthcare-specialized investment banking group. The team of healthcare specialists merges scientific, medical, clinical, intellectual property and commercial expertise with a strong understanding of the capital markets, to advise and raise capital for private and public companies. For more information, please visit http://www.bloomburton.com.

About Oncolytics Biotech Inc. Oncolytics is a Calgary-based biotechnology company focused on the development of oncolytic viruses as potential cancer therapeutics. Oncolytics' clinical program includes a variety of human trials including a Phase III trial in head and neck cancers using REOLYSIN, its proprietary formulation of the human reovirus. For further information about Oncolytics, please visit: http://www.oncolyticsbiotech.com.

This release and the presentation related thereto contain forward-looking statements which involve known and unknown risks, delays, uncertainties and other factors not under the Company's control and which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from the results, performance or expectations implied by these forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the efficacy of REOLYSIN as a cancer treatment, the success and timely completion of clinical studies and trials, uncertainties related to the research and development of pharmaceuticals and uncertainties related to the regulatory process. Investors should consult the Company's quarterly and annual filings with the Canadian and U.S. securities commissions for additional information on risks and uncertainties relating to the forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned against placing undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable laws.

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Media Advisory - Oncolytics Biotech® Inc. to Present at Bloom Burton & Co. Healthcare Investor Conference

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The mining magnate's attempt to exert editorial control over the media company is 'very concerning', says the Acting Prime Minister

Treasurer Wayne Swan says Gina Rinehart is the only media owner to blatantly declare an intention to ignore editorial independence

But the Treasurer and acting Prime Minister has stopped short of supporting a Greens push for legislation to protect journalists from proprietorial interference.

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Ms Rinehart is understood to have demanded three seats on the Fairfax board. Photo: AFP

And Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has ruled out supporting any such legislation, telling Parliament, ''we are not going to ... start legislation to interfere in any way with editorial independence.

Greens MP Adam Bandt asked Mr Swan in question time today if he was prepared to do more than just "publicly call" on Ms Rinehart to uphold editorial standards. The Treasurer told Parliament that he was very concerned about Mrs Rinehart's attitude towards Fairfax. "The government is very strongly of the view that a healthy robust media is essential to our democratic process," he said.

But Mr Swan stopped short of backing the Greens' move for legislation, referring to the government's convergence review and media inquiry as a sign of its action in the area. Mr Swan said Mrs Rinehart had to explain to the Australian people what her intentions were towards Fairfax, "whether she will or wont support a charter of independence".

Greens MP Adam Bandt and Workplace Minister Bill Shorten talk during question time this afternoon. Photo: Adam Bandt

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Swan warns Rinehart media ploy bad for democracy

When a homemade bomb went off outside an Indian Peaks home in January -- badly burning a husband and wife -- Lafayette Mayor Pro Tem Steve Kracha received calls from concerned residents wanting to know more about the incident.

Kracha felt there had to be a way of sending targeted dispatches to a small group of people based on their addresses alone.

With the goal of helping neighbors connect and share information online, he searched for a website, a tool or an app that had the communicative power of Facebook but the targeted range of a neighborhood email listserv.

Just a few months earlier, a California-based startup had launched Nextdoor, a private social network that links people together, neighborhood by neighborhood. Kracha went to Nextdoor's website and established a site for his 200-home neighborhood in Indian Peaks.

Now, about half the households in his neighborhood are part of Nextdoor, sharing everything from recommendations for house painters or restaurants to concerns over repeated incidents of vandalism at the swimming pool.

"This is how we are actually communicating today as a homeowners association," Kracha said. "This is something where people build their own community within their city."

Since Kracha's initial efforts this spring, 12 other neighborhoods in Lafayette have joined Nextdoor. The city has more neighborhoods on the network than all other municipalities in Boulder County combined. Boulder has six neighborhoods on Nextdoor, Louisville has two, and Erie has one.

And now the city of Lafayette itself is involved, with plans to issue notifications and community messages to residents through the network. It is the first municipality in Colorado to do so.

"From our standpoint, having neighbors connect with each other makes for a more vibrant city," said Debbie Wilmot, spokeswoman for the city.

She said Nextdoor becomes another communication tool for the city -- joining a recently revamped website, emergency alert system, and Twitter and Facebook pages.

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Social networking goes hyper-local in Lafayette