After the recent debate between content providers and ISPs, the BBC has called for the creation of a group to represent content providers in their growing concern over the threat to the UK?s net neutrality.</p> <p>The debate was organised by the government and led by communications minister Ed Vaizey.</p>

Sir Tim Berners Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has warned UK internet service providers that their plan for a two-tiered internet goes completely against the internet are founding principles.</p> <p>?Best practices should include the neutrality of the net,? he said in a Westminster round table held on Wednesday morning.</p>

The US Justice Department has issued a court order, which will force popular social networking site Twitter to hand over information relating to any accounts that are seen as tied to WikiLeaks.</p> <p>Included in those whose information has been requested is Birgitta Jonsdottir, an Icelandic politician and member of the country?s national parliament. </p>

In a report by Education Week, it was said that Philadelphia-based teacher Natalie Munroe is the latest in a line of teaching professionals whose jobs have been threatened by their online activity.</p>

Many of our most favourite social media sites have made it simple to give money towards aid for Japanese victims of the tsunami and earthquake.</p>

This week, the Guardian has reported that the BBC World Services is actively using microblogging as a way to get around government censorship laws.</p> <p>Touted as the ?scourge of the Iranian government?, BBC Persian TV relies on information provided by Iranian citizens to find out and report upon what is happening in the country.</p> <p>"Since the presidential protests [last December], the government has realised the power of that footage and decided to work actively to not let the BBC and others broadcast it," Sanam Dolatshahi, a London-based presenter for BBC Persian TV says.</p>

In a recent list of the top social brands, delivered by Headstream a social specialist company, it has been noted that while many brands are finally embracing social media, only a few use their geo-location services.</p> <p>The list, which can be viewed on the Social Brand 100 website, is the result of three months? worth of research covering 100 different brands and 30,000 Twitter interactions. The research panel included social experts from a wide-variety of fields, including media and communications, general business, social media experts, and academia. Each of the experts scored participating brands on their use of social media while Brandwatch provided the accompanying data analytics.</p> <p>The results showed that while brands are successfully engaging in social media, few use the associated geo-location services. Only 22% of the participating brands have accounts with Gowilla, Foursquare, or another geo-location service and of that 22%, 45% said their accounts were inactive.</p> <p>The initial selection for participation in Social Brand 100 took place on Twitter last November through crowdsourcing. The five brands awarded the highest rankings, based upon their use of social media, were Dell, Nike Plus, Starbucks, Giffgaff, and Best Buy UK, in that order.</p> <p>?The best examples ? stand out for commercial gains they?ve made from good use of social?</p>

(Bangalore) ? A proposed government order to regulate blog content is being protested by India?s bloggers. </p>

A new EU law, which regulates how tracking cookies are used, be websites is causing concern. According to the new law, from 25 May 2011, all European websites must get explicit consent from anyone visiting their site before they will be allowed to track behaviour using cookies.</p> <p>Websites use cookies in several ways; one of those is to determine how a user browses the web. When using cookies, a website will glean your personal preferences from the sites you tend to visit. Then they will provide advertising based upon those preferences. For instance, if you visit many golfing sites, you will see golfing-related adverts. This is the type of tracking cookies the law is meant to address; making it mandatory that a site gain consent before tracking your browsing habits. However, as with most laws governing the internet, the law will also affect other types of sites as well. This includes sites that use cookies to store webpage settings and login information.</p> <p>One concern is how people will react to the new law. Most people do not realise how many cookies are accumulated as they peruse the web. However, the main concern is how it will affect legitimate websites, especially start-ups who have not yet earned trust or reputation. This new law could force them to go elsewhere.</p> <p>While the intention behind the new EU law is a good one, as pointed out by TNW Europe, an awareness campaign might be the more-suitable resolution.

The $315 million acquisition of The Huffington Post by AOL, which was originally announced early in February, is now a done deal taking one month to sign, seal, and deliver.</p> <p>The newly formed Huffington Post Media Group incorporates content providing sites including TechCrunch, autoblog, engadget, mapquest, and all of the Huffington Posts niche sites addressing things like politics, books, comedy, womens and environmental issues.</p> <p>According to an article on TechCrunch, AOL says that the newly formed media group will provide for a user base of 117 million unique visitors each month in the USA alone. Worldwide, the number is 253 million. That number comes courtesy of comScore.</p> <p>The purchase of The Huffington Post is the largest of AOLs acquisitions to date. The new media group boasts several strong names in its newly formed team of respected and talented writers. Included are Yahoo!s Micahel Calderone as Senior Media Reporter, Michael McAuliff (New York Daily News) as Senior Congressional Reporter, Trymaine Lee (New York Times) as a Senior Reporter, and Lucas Kavner as the media groups Entertainment Reporter. Also part of the team is Jon Ward of the highly popular The Daily, who will serve as Senior Political Reporter.</p> <p>AOL CEO Tim Armstrong says that, with The Huffington Post acquisition, AOL is buying into the content strategy the online content provider is best known for. Armstrong also says that the Posts publishing model is a perfect fit for the platform AOL is trying to create. This includes a target market of women and key influencers, as well as an emphasis on local content.