Top News:
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 …, Sunlight Foundation Blog, TechCrunch, The Hill, Mediaite, VentureBeat, UPI, Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine, Politico, Tech Times, @legalnomads, Re/code, Reuters, USA Today, Motherboard, hexanews.com, The Huffington Post, @nacin, The Next Web, Newsmax, International Business Times, Gigaom, Raw Story, @amp6, CNN, Sun-Times National, The Independent, The Week, @politwoops, @openstateeu, Fortune, @tapbot_paul, The Verge, @digiphile, SiliconBeat, Engadget, Mashable and Gizmodo
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, The Independent, Deadline, @redhotsquirrel, CNNMoney, UPI, PC Magazine, Computerworld, Hollywood Reporter, International Business Times, Metro.co.uk, Associated Press, Business Standard, BBC, Reuters, Variety, The Independent, Daily Mail, The Drum, mirror, Telegraph, BelfastTelegraph.co.uk, The Independent, @joelmgunter, Mashable, The Register, Mirror.co.uk, bit-tech.net, Business Insider Australia, walesonline, Telegraph, 9news.com.au, Mirror.co.uk and Daily Express
RELATED:
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 …
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, /Film, Bleeding Cool Comic Book …, @burnettrm, The Wrap, io9, UNITED STATES DISTRICT …, Mercury News, Global News, Courthouse News Service, Epicstream, Digital Trends, Rolling Stone, Guardian, EW.com, Wall Street Journal, Vulture, CINEMABLEND, SlashGear, The Wrap, Paste, TorrentFreak, Ars Technica, The Verge, International Business Times, Engadget, The A.V. Club, Deadline, Gizmodo Australia, New York Daily News, UPROXX, @bsgmuseum, Forbes, Techdirt, @eriqgardner, @jenocidoll, @andykhouri, @wellesnetcom, IOL, The Independent, Polygon, Bleeding Cool Comic Book …, Comicbook.com, io9, Spinoff Online, Vine Report and Den of Geek
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, USA Today, SlashGear, VentureBeat, Gigaom, International Business Times, Egyptian Streets, TechCrunch, Ubergizmo, The Verge, BBC, DW.COM, Quartz, Fortune, The Register, Reuters, New York Times, BuzzFeed, Engadget, Gizmodo UK, @brian_rohan and BuzzFeed
RELATED:
New York Times:
Egyptian authorities shut down art gallery and raided an independent publishing house, raising concerns about continued free speech issues
Egyptian authorities shut down art gallery and raided an independent publishing house, raising concerns about continued free speech issues
Discussion:
Nigeria, South Carolina SC, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, KTEP, Los Angeles Times, NPR, @kenroth, @lizsly, StepFeed, i24news, StepFeed, Egypt Independent, Egyptian Streets and artnet News
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:
Folio, FishbowlNY and @sherman4949
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.
Discussion:
BBC, The Daily Caller, Business Standard, Business Standard, Wall Street Journal, Agence France-Presse, Reuters, Associated Press, euronews, The Indian Express, BT.com, Voice of America, presstv.ir, International Business Times, NEWKERALA.COM for News …, CNN, International Business Times and DW.COM
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
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
Agence France-Presse:
Charlie Hebdo to release million copies of special issue one year after attack — Satirical magazine to release double issue on 7 January to mark a year since 12 people were killed in jihadi killings on its Paris office — French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday …
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
Associated Press:
Poland's lawmakers approve new law on state media control — WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's parliament on Wednesday approved new legislation that gives the government control of state radio and television stations in a move that has raised EU concern. — Following a heated debate …
Discussion:
BBC, Agence France-Presse, Life Style Extra, TIME, Wall Street Journal, International Business Times, Politico, Reuters, Broadband TV News, DW.COM, PravdaReport, DW.COM, RT, euronews, EUobserver and TV Newsroom