Google reporting a 'troubling' rise in censorship by Asian and European governments

• Google refused to take down videos satirising Parkistani politicians
• Also refused to remove video of Canadian man urinating on passport
• But accepted request to remove 100 videos of 'illegal' videos criticising Thailand's monarchy
• Took down 12 links to UK pages at request of British courts
  

By Eddie Wrenn

PUBLISHED: 00:01 EST, 18 June 2012 | UPDATED: 01:51 EST, 19 June 2012

Google removed 640 videos from YouTube in the second half of last year amid fears they promoted terrorism.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) made a request for five user accounts to be closed for allegedly promoting terrorism.

Google agreed and deleted the 640 videos.

Details were released in the internet giant's latest Transparency Report, which reveals requests by international authorities to remove material.

Though Google agreed with Acpo's request, it repeatedly refused to comply with others.

Censored: Google, which releases its own transparency report bi-annually, has been asked by even more governments to remove content from its sites

Canada's Passport Office asked for footage to be removed of a Canadian citizen urinating on his passport and then flushing it down the toilet.

Google refused and also would not bow to a request from Pakistan's Ministry of Information Technology to delete six videos satirising its army and senior politicians.

However, the search engine did take action at certain times.

A German court order resulted in the removal of 898 search results linking to forums and blogs containing statements about a government agency and one of its employees that the court determined were not credible.

?

Google also received a request to remove 70 YouTube videos for allegedly violating the German Children and Young Persons Act.

It restricted some of the videos from view in Germany in accordance with local laws.

Google acceded to a request to block more than 100 YouTube videos in Thailand allegedly insulting its monarchy - which is a crime in the country.

Google also terminated four YouTube accounts responsible for videos that allegedly contained threatening and harassing content after complaints by different US law enforcement agencies.

Hungary, Russia and Turkey had 0% of their requests partially or fully complied with where as 93% of America's requests were successful according to Google's figures.

The internet search giant, which releases its own transparency report bi-annually, has noticed a surprising rise in requests to remove content from its sites.

Top 30: Brazil led the way for court-ordered requests, followed by the U.S., Germany and Argentina. The UK asked made 12 requests

In many cases Google has shown it?s not playing ball, and denying many of the requests to take out video content and politically-charged blogs.

Spain asked that Google remove 270 blog and article links, and they were told no.

The same thing happened in Poland, where Google was asked to take away content critical of the government, and the company refrained.

When Pakistan asked if the company would remove satires of its politicians, Google said no.

U.S. authorities wished to remove about 187 materials, and Google allowed 68 per cent of that number.

Google complied with about 65 per cent of the requests it received in total over the last six months.

Senior policy analyst at Google, Dorothy Chou, said in a blog: "This is the fifth data set that we've released. Just like every other time, we've been asked to take down political speech.?

Battle: The report comes on the heels of a new salvo in Google's censorship war with China - and potentially put itself on a collision course with Beijing's

She added: ?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.'

The report comes on the heels of a new salvo in Google?s censorship war with China - and potentially put itself on a collision course with Beijing?s government.

Google already closed its China-based search engine - but users in China can still access Google searches in Hong Kong.

China censors the results - but Google has now added a feature that suggests alternatives for search terms that might result in blocked results.

Google's announcement of the 'new feature' did not mention of Beijing's extensive Internet controls.

But it comes after filters were tightened so severely in recent weeks that searches fail for some restaurants, universities or tourist information.

Authorities were aiming to stamp out talk about an embarrassing scandal over the fall of a rising Communist Party star.

Google closed its China-based search engine in 2010 to avoid cooperating with government censorship.

More information on Google's transparency page

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'Monsters University' Unleashes Four Different Teaser Trailers

As Pixar gets ready to release this year's offering of high quality computer animation, "Brave," they're already laying the groundwork for next year's adventure, a prequel to their 2001 hit, "Monsters, Inc." "Monsters University" follows the monstrous heroes from the first movie, James P. "Sulley" Sullivan and Mike Wazowski, as they enter college at the [...]

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TexBusiness: Manticore Technology and Sales Engine International Execute Merger Agreement: Texas Business reports: AUSTIN?Th... http://t.co/U3yYAY7O

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Chesapeake Energy To Lay Off 70 DFW Workers

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM)? Chesapeake Energy, one of the key companies which developed the Barnett Shale natural gas field in North Texas, is laying off about 70 local employees.

CBSDFW.COM broke the story this morning.

The company notified its employees of the layoffs in an internal memo obtained by CBS 11 News, which we have published below.

Chesapeake blames the low price of natural gas.? The entire gas industry is suffering from low prices, brought on in part by the shale drilling technologies which made it possible to develop the Barnett Shale and similar gas fields.

But the company has also recently had a string of bad publicity, partly caused by questionable financial deals CEO Aubrey McClendon was allowed to make.

McClendon, who co-founded Chesapeake, made some personal financial deals which have been called a conflict of interest.? The company recently sped up the end date of those arrangements, and McClendon stepped down from his position as Chairman.? He remains CEO.

Following the layoffs, Chesapeake says it will have about 700 local employees and just ?one or two? active drilling rigs in the Barnett Shale.? That?s down from a high of 44 local rigs the company operated in 2008.

Chesapeake also recently announced plans to sell some of its natural gas pipelines and related infrastructure for about $4 billion.? The company is trying to sell about $15 billion in assets before the end of the year. ?As we reported earlier this month, its office tower in Fort Worth appears to be one of the assets up for sale. ?Chesapeake has a debt load of about $13 billion, which some financial analysts have said is too high.

This is the text of Chesapeake?s internal memo which CBS 11 obtained:

From: Julie Wilson
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 9:29 AM
Subject: News From Chesapeake/Barnett

I have some news to share.

This morning we informed our employees that we will reduce our North Texas workforce. While the news was not a surprise given historic low natural gas prices and our company?s ongoing strategy to redeploy assets to more economically promising fields, it was of course a disappointment.

We currently have two drilling rigs in the Barnett Shale and will have only one or two for the foreseeable future. This compares to 44 rigs drilling at our peak level of activity in 2008. As a result, we are trimming staff in our Fort Worth and Cleburne offices by about 70 employees, or roughly 8%? ? substantially less than some recent rumors have indicated, although still painful for those affected. The colleagues we?re releasing are wonderful people, passionate about their work and true assets to our community. I hope you?ll help us find new career opportunities for them. The positions being eliminated are in support departments such as public affairs, marketing communications, community relations, legal, land, land administration, administrative services and information technology. These are the departments most directly impacted by reduced leasing and drilling activity.

In addition to the 60-day notice pursuant to the WARN ACT (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, Public Law 100-379), our terminated employees will receive generous severance packages along with outplacement assistance. I am confident that our departing colleagues have been treated well in their separation and know they leave with enhanced skills and experience that will be attractive to future employers.

We have already taken steps to transfer other employees to more prolific shale plays or to our headquarters in Oklahoma City where we have centralized certain support functions. As a result of those actions, Chesapeake?s North Texas employment now will be about 700. This is still a significant number of jobs in our local economy and of course our activities will continue to support many hundreds more indirect jobs.

So clearly, Chesapeake will continue to have a significant presence in the Barnett Shale, even though our rig count is lower and our pipeline activities are nearing completion.? The 700-some employees who will remain in our Fort Worth and Cleburne offices will focus their attention on the continued safe and responsible completion and production of almost 2,700 natural gas wells in the area. Our dedication and commitment to high standards of safety and security, as well as to safeguarding the environment at all our operations and facilities, will never change.

Our company will also continue to be an economic driver in North Texas for years to come. In addition to the $13 billion in capital expenditures we?ve invested in this community since 2004, we have paid more than $1.5 billion in royalties to area mineral owners and more than $4.3 billion in leasehold acquisition bonuses. With approximately 60 new wells anticipated to be in production before year end, we will be responsible for even more royalties and tax revenue. The discretionary income we have generated for families and businesses throughout North Texas has enhanced the quality of life for all.

Earlier this month, we announced the intended sale of our interest in Chesapeake Midstream Partners to Global Infrastructure Partners. The employees of Chesapeake?s midstream affiliates will become employees of the new owner when that transaction is completed later this year and our companies will be completely separated. We have approximately 160 midstream employees currently in the Barnett Shale. About 60 who have offices in Chesapeake Plaza will move to leased space in the D.R. Horton building in downtown Fort Worth. Timing of the move has not been determined but is likely to occur this summer. This news has no doubt led to the speculation of our intention to sell Chesapeake Plaza. While, as I was previously quoted, we will certainly remain open-minded to any offer that may come in, we are more interested in leasing some of the space that will be vacated and have been actively looking for tenants. It?s a spectacular building and we fully intend to continue occupying it, whether as owner or future tenant.

Although in no way do I want to trivialize our local staff reductions, I feel compelled to note that our company remains in a strong growth mode. We continue to add staff at our headquarters in Oklahoma City and in many of our field offices as the company continues to drill approximately 1,650 new wells this year to develop our enormous reserves of domestic oil, natural gas, and liquids.

We are very appreciative of all our employees, former and current, who have helped our growth in the Barnett Shale, and are especially grateful for the continuing support of our many lease holders, vendors, civic leaders and local elected officials who helped us pioneer urban drilling. Despite the current downturn in the price of natural gas, Chesapeake remains committed to a long and mutually rewarding future in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. I hope we have your support in encouraging fleet t conversions to compressed natural gas and power generation to natural gas-fired plants so we can look forward to a time when our drilling rigs ? and employees! ? are back to the Barnett Shale in full force.

Thank you.

Julie H. Wilson
Vice President ? Urban Development
Chesapeake Energy?Corporation
100 Energy Way
Fort Worth, Texas 76102

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Payroll taxes cover about a third of Medicare costs

Many Americans may believe that Medicare is financed like Social Security. They know that a portion of payroll taxes goes to Social Security and a portion goes to Medicare, and they conclude workers are paying for Medicare benefits. This is not true.

By Donald Marron,?Guest blogger / June 18, 2012

In this April 12, 2011, file photo, Medicare Administrator Donald Berwick gestures during an interview with The Associated Press in Washington. Many Americans may believe that Medicare is financed like Social Security. But this is just not true.

J. David Ake/AP

Enlarge

I get the impression that many Americans believe Medicare is financed like Social Security. They know that a portion of payroll taxes goes to Social Security and a portion goes to Medicare. So they conclude workers are paying for Medicare benefits the same way they are paying for Social Security benefits.

Skip to next paragraph Donald Marron

Donald B. Marron is director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. He previously served as a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers and as acting director of the Congressional Budget Office.

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That isn?t remotely true, as new data from the Congressional Budget Office demonstrate.

In 2010, payroll taxes covered a little more than a third of Medicare?s costs. Beneficiary premiums (and some other earmarked receipts) covered about a seventh. General revenues (which include borrowing) covered the remainder, slightly more than half of total Medicare costs.

If you prefer to focus on just the government?s share of Medicare (i.e., after premiums and similar payments by or on behalf of beneficiaries), then payroll taxes covered about 40% of the program, and other revenues and borrowing covered about 60%.

In contrast, payroll taxes and other earmarked taxes covered more than 93% of Social Security's costs in 2010, and that was after many years of surpluses.

The difference between the two programs exists because payroll taxes finance almost all of Social Security, but only one part of Medicare, the Part A program for hospital insurance. Parts B and D (doctors and prescription drugs) don?t get payroll revenues; instead, they are covered by premiums and general revenues. But that distinction often gets lost in public discussion of Medicare financing.

As recently at 2000, general revenues covered only a quarter of Medicare?s costs. That share has increased because of the creation of the prescription drug benefit in 2003 and because population aging and rising health care costs have pushed Medicare spending up faster than worker wages. Over the next decade, CBO projects that premiums will cover a somewhat larger share of overall costs, while the general revenue share will slightly decline.

Note: For simplicity, I have focused on the annual flow of taxes and benefits. The same insight applies if you want to think of Social Security and Medicare as programs in which workers pay payroll taxes to earn future benefits. That?s approximately true for workers as a whole in Social Security (but with notable differences across individuals and age cohorts and uncertainty about what the future will bring). But it?s not true at all for Medicare.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on taxvox.taxpolicycenter.org.

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Toughbook goes Ivy Bridge with 10-inch magnesium CF-19

One thing we haven't seen too much of from the ongoing Ivy Bridge onslaught, is rugged notebooks. Sure, there was that Durabook from last week, but not much else -- and we all know the big name in indestructible laptops, is Panasonic's Toughbook line. Luckily, for those of you with jobs or hobbies that tend to involve dust storms and precipitous drops, the CF-19 is on the way with a 3.3GHz Core i5 under its 10.1-inch hood. The €2,950 (roughly, $3,727), convertible notebook has an optional touchscreen, 500GB hard drive, SSD options for the drop prone, as well as lone USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports. If you're a truly mobile warrior, there's even an HSPA+ upgrade available for the wireless card. Basically its the Toughbook 19 we've all grown to know and love, but with some nice Intel upgrades on the inside. The updated rugged lappy should start shipping in Europe this July, but we're still waiting on availability info for the US.

Toughbook goes Ivy Bridge with 10-inch magnesium CF-19 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jun 2012 10:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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