Top News:
BBC:
Sources: BBC websites hit by DDoS attack — ‘Technical issue’ hits BBC websites — “Technical issues” made the BBC's websites intermittently unavailable on Thursday morning. — The problems began about 0700 GMT and meant visitors to the site saw a message informing them about an “internal error”.
Discussion:
@bbcpress, Wired.co.uk, New York Times, Deadline, The Independent, CNNMoney, UPI, PC Magazine, Computerworld, BBC, Business Standard, Reuters, Hollywood Reporter, RTÉ, International Business Times, Associated Press, Variety, ABC, Business Insider, The Drum, bit-tech.net, Mirror.co.uk, The Register, The Independent, Mirror.co.uk, The Independent, Daily Express, Daily Mail, mirror, Telegraph, BelfastTelegraph.co.uk, @joelmgunter, Mashable, walesonline and Telegraph
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Samuel Gibbs / Guardian:
BBC online services back up after widespread outages took its website and iPlayer offline for several hours — BBC suffers widespread outages taking website and iPlayer offline — UK public broadcaster apologises as its internet services are taken down by ‘technical issue’ affecting its website …
Rob Price / Business Insider:
Twitter is reversing its ban on political watchdog Politwoops — Four months after being banned by Twitter, Politwoops is coming back. — If you're not familiar with it, Politwoops is a kind of social media watchdog. It automatically monitors the Twitter feeds of politicians and highlights whenever they delete a tweet.
Discussion:
The Twitter Blog, Open State Foundation …, TechCrunch, The Hill, Sunlight Foundation Blog, Mediaite, VentureBeat, Talking Points Memo, Politico, Re/code, Reuters, USA Today, The Huffington Post, International Business Times, CNN, Newsmax, Gigaom, Raw Story, @amp6, Sun-Times National, The Week, SiliconBeat, Mashable, @openstateeu, The Verge, Engadget, Gizmodo, The Independent, Fortune, @digiphile, @tapbot_paul and @politwoops
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
Crowdfunded ‘Star Trek’ Movie Draws Lawsuit from Paramount, CBS — ‘Axanar’ aims to be a professional-quality prequel and has raised more than $1 million. — For decades, Paramount and CBS have tolerated and even encouraged fans of the Star Trek franchise to use their imagination at will …
Discussion:
Variety, Bleeding Cool Comic Book …, @burnettrm, The Wrap, Mercury News, Global News, Courthouse News Service, Epicstream, Digital Trends, Guardian, Rolling Stone, Engadget, International Business Times, New York Daily News, EW.com, Wall Street Journal, Vulture, CINEMABLEND, SlashGear, The Wrap, Paste, TorrentFreak, Ars Technica, The Verge, The A.V. Club, Deadline, Gizmodo Australia, UPROXX, @bsgmuseum, Techdirt, @eriqgardner, @jenocidoll, @andykhouri, @wellesnetcom, Forbes, IOL, The Independent, Bleeding Cool Comic Book …, Comicbook.com, io9, Spinoff Online, Vine Report, Den of Geek and Polygon
Brian Rohan / Associated Press:
Egypt shuts down Facebook's Free Basics internet service on telco provider Etisalat, reasons unclear — Free Internet service for over 3 million Egyptians shut down — BEIRUT (AP) — Social media site Facebook says a program that had been giving free basic Internet services to over three million Egyptians has been shut down.
Discussion:
Mashable, Reuters, The Economic Times, The Register, BBC, Quartz, New York Times, International Business Times, USA Today, SlashGear, VentureBeat, Gigaom, Egyptian Streets, TechCrunch, Ubergizmo, The Verge, DW.COM, Fortune, BuzzFeed, Gizmodo UK, Engadget, @brian_rohan and BuzzFeed
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New York Times:
Egyptian authorities shut down art gallery and raided an independent publishing house, raising concerns about continued free speech issues
Discussion:
Nigeria, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, NPR, South Carolina SC, KTEP, @kenroth, @lizsly, StepFeed, i24news, StepFeed, Egypt Independent, Egyptian Streets, artnet News and ARTnews
Reuters:
Russian court jails blogger for five years for ‘extremist’ posts — A Russian court on Wednesday sentenced a blogger to five years in jail for what it said was his extremist activity on the Internet after he urged people to attend a protest against high transport fares and criticized Russian intervention in Ukraine.
Discussion:
Radio Free Europe/Radio …, Global Voices, New Europe, NDTV News, StopFake and Daily Mail
Alex Sherman / Bloomberg Business:
Sources: Nexstar to finalize new offer for Media General, at about $2.2B, or $17.50 per share, as soon as Thursday — Nexstar Said to Finalize Media General Proposal Soon as Thursday — Offer would trigger at least 4-day window for Meredith counter — Nexstar tapping three banks for $4.5 billion in debt financing
Discussion:
FishbowlNY and @sherman4949
Jeremy Barr / Ad Age:
Q&A with Huffington Post founding editor Roy Sekoff, whose last day is December 31, on experimentation and innovation, cultivating readers, and taking a break — Q&A: The Huffington Post's Founding Editor Gets Ready to Move On — Roy Sekoff Last's Day, After 11 Years, is Dec. 31
Discussion:
@jeremymbarr and @kzaleski
Agence France-Presse:
Two Bangladeshi students sentenced to death over blogger murder — A Bangladesh court sentenced two students to death on Thursday for the 2013 murder of a secular blogger, delivering the first convictions over a series of brutal killings that have rocked the Muslim-majority nation.
Andy / TorrentFreak:
How Hollywood Caught the UK's Most Prolific Movie Pirates — Following a three year investigation by Hollywood-backed anti-piracy group the Federation Against Copyright Theft, last week five of the UK's most prolific movie pirates were sentenced in the West Midlands.
Discussion:
@simoncarless
Sean O'Kane / The Verge:
Facebook tests multiple, topic-based feeds on its mobile app in place of one main News Feed, also tests wider rollout of Marketplace feature with its own tab — Facebook is testing multiple news feeds on mobile — Facebook is testing multiple, topic-based feeds on its mobile app in place of one main News Feed.
Discussion:
The Whip, TIME, Daily Mail, Mashable, Scroll.in, Digital Spy, Komando.com, The Independent, The Economic Times, bizjournals, Seeking Alpha, all, SocialTimes, Ubergizmo and The Drum
Walter Pincus / Washington Post:
In farewell, veteran Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus says rush to be first is leaving facts behind, newsmakers have become better at influencing media — A farewell to The Washington Post — For more than 40 years I have been lucky enough to be part of The Washington Post.
Discussion:
@sogrady, @mikeykaynyc, @thekarami, @ourand_sbj, @rezhasan, @wsjsolomon, @jenhoward, @moisesnaim, @aodespair and @athertonkd
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