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01/27/2012

How to get around Twitter's censorship of Tweets

Outraged that Twitter will begin censoring Tweets appearing or originating from certain countries, some have discovered a workaround to circumvent the social network's censorship.

Some background: Twitter announced Thursday "Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world."

While it seems they might put the blinders on some users - and some controversial topics - there could be some ways around it. 

On their blog post, Twitter said an example of censoring a Tweet would be something neo-Nazi related, coming from Germany, where it's illegal. However - that might be just the tip of the censorship iceberg.

In any case, buried within their blog post was a link to a page with instructions about how to change your country setting.

So if Twitter thinks you're in Iran, possibly posting something the "authority" doesn't like there, perhaps you should tell Twitter where you really are. Maybe, in Mexico, perhaps?

From your Account Settings menu, users can click Change Country and select another country.

It will work for a short while, but Twitter may eventually determine your IP address is from within a banned country (or about a banned topic) before it blocks you again.

What do you think about Twitter moving to censor Tweets?

- Maurice Cacho, MSN TEch & Gadgets

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12/16/2011

US law could kill Canadian web sites

Are you kidding me? If it isn't bad enough that the US Congress is effectively threatening to kill large parts of the Internet, they can't even do it without bickering among themselves, like schoolchildren. SOPA, a piece of toxic legislation currently working its way through the US House of Representatives, made it through yesterday's vote largely intact - after the debate was derailed by infantile name calling.

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12/02/2011

Note to Facebook: Irish resident wants her Effin town back

Is the name of your hometown too explicit to mention? Poor Anne-Marie Kennedy of Effin in County Limerick, Ireland, found that Facebook had wiped her village off the map, because it deemed the name too offensive.

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07/20/2011

Married people stalking their spouses online: report

Just a few days ago I wrote a blog post about parents stalking their kids on social networks. Well, the results of a new study suggest several people who are married are actually tracking their significant other using technology.

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06/17/2011

Apple developing tech to turn off iPhone cameras: report

If you’ve been to a concert or a major public event lately, you probably noticed several people were holding up their iPhones to either snap a photo or record a video. Well, that could soon be a thing of the past.

Apple is reportedly developing a system that would disable the iPhone’s camera at special events, preventing users from capturing memories from venues equipped with the right technology.

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06/16/2011

What happened to Rebecca Black's Friday video?

No_friday If you were planning to crank up Rebecca Black's hit song 'Friday' on YouTube, you're out of luck.

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06/03/2011

Democracy disconnected

One swallow may not a summer make, but several revolutions make an Arab Spring. Syria is the latest country in the middle east to face a regime change, as the people rise up and protest the government's killing of 13 year-old Hamza Ali al-Khateeb. Reports say that the boy was detained when his father took him to an anti-regime rally in April. His mutilated body was then handed back to his family by government officials. Tens of thousands of Syrians have since come out in protest of his death, and that of six other children.

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05/23/2011

Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia Play

SEPlay Playing games on a smartphone isn’t revolutionary. Gaming has been a feature built-in to almost all phones made in the last few years, from ‘Snake’ on early Nokia handsets to Angry Birds available from most app stores.

But the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is the first to be a PlayStation-certified phone – and that brings with it some key features that set it apart from the pack.

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05/16/2011

Taking social networking offline - harder than you think

Ever wondered what would happen if someone tried to create an offline social network – by asking you a whole bunch of questions in person? A pair of guys in Australia tried...and now it’s become a viral video.

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05/13/2011

Taliban now on Twitter

If launching a spring offensive on the Canadian-patrolled city of Kandahar wasn’t enough to show the West that they’re unhappy, the Taliban is now on Twitter.

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Danny BradburyDanny Bradbury

Danny Bradbury is a technology journalist with 20 years' experience. He writes regularly for publications including the Guardian, the Financial Times, the Financial Post, and Backbone magazine. Danny also writes and directs documentaries.

Maurice CachoMaurice Cacho

Maurice Cacho is a Toronto-based journalist mixing his love for tech with a passion for news. He's also CP24's Web Journalist and appears daily on CP24 Breakfast and weekly on the channel's tech show, Webnation, discussing tech news and trends.

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