Iran Launched Its Own YouTube

The country has created its own YouTube which would only allow video on approval of the government’s regime.

Mehr, which means “affection” in Farsi, is created for Persian-speaking Internet users. Its aim is to promote and cultivate the local culture. At the moment, the URL YouTube.IR is redirecting to Fars TV, while Mehr, located at http://ir.mehr.ir, appears to be down. Anyway, the service is expected to share content specific to the country, including music videos. Iranian users will also be able to submit their own material.

ITU Treaty Refused by US, UK, and Canada

The United Kingdom, United States and Canada have refused to sign a treaty which would allow greater involvement in web governance to nations throughout the globe

During the International Telecommunication Union conference in Dubai, a number of countries objected outright to the proposals of the agreement. For instance, there was strong opposition from the US Federal Communications Commission. Its head, Robert M. McDowell, claimed that the public governing of the web might impact the basic freedoms of web. McDowell also said that a number of countries present at the conference in UAE had gone back on commitments to keep the web free from government control.

US ISP Will Start Sending Infringement Warnings

According to media reports, one of the largest US broadband providers, AT&T, is ready to start sending anti-piracy warnings next month. The company’s management has already decided how and when they will act.

Apparently, AT&T had come up with a plan to apply the “six-strikes” graduated response system. In means that the users who often visit “notorious sites” won’t be able to access them any longer, until they pass an online copyright education. The “six-strikes” regime was the idea of the entertainment industry and involved 5 largest American ISPs – together they made up the Center for Copyright Information.

White House Cleared Chinese Tech Firm of Spying Allegations

Finally, the US White House has cleared Huawei of all spying allegations. Just a week ago, the American congressional report has warned against allowing Huawei and ZTE, both based in China, to supply critical telecom infrastructure. The fears were that the use of Chinese software posed a security risk to American companies, since Huawei could transfer over sensitive information to its government.

Nevertheless, the White House reviewed the security risks posed by Huawei and ZTE to American telecommunications firms and found no evidence that they had spied for their government. It was said that there was risk about the gear of Huawei, the 2nd largest

America Looking for a Cyber Reason to Invade Iran

Desperate to find a reason to get involved, the military establishment of the United States decided to use its latest bugbear of cyber warfare as its latest pretext. The country is now claiming that Iran is going to fire cyber weapons of mass distraction.

A week ago, the American military issued the warning, saying that they might have to take an action to stop a cyber war. In the meantime, the Defense Secretary also claimed that the country faced a risk of a so-called “cyber-Pearl Harbor”. These claims were made after the last year mutterings that cyber war might be countered with conventional weaponry.

US Military to Launch Cyber Strikes

The military of the United States is allowed to act preemptively in the event of detection of an imminent threat of hacker attack. Meanwhile, a presidential executive order is “while we wait for Congress to act”.

US Defense Secretary has issued a warning that some unnamed actors were trying to target computer control systems responsible for chemical, electricity and water plants in the country, as well as those operating transportation. It is not clear why China is training actors to hack American infrastructure – maybe the country wants to use the Academy Awards to cover for the attack.

Users Accidentally Like Romney on Facebook

It seems that Facebook software is now causing a lot of defriendings, because it somehow makes liberals look like they like Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

It has been for a while now that Internet users who don’t actually like the idea of being ruled by Mitt Romney were wondering why the largest social network in the world tells everyone that they like him. The largest problem is that it is causing a purge because the friends fall out. It was a surprise for many to find out that some people didn’t actually really like this person at all.

US Jury Won’t Accept IP Address as Proof of Infringement

An American jury is close to making a landmark decision as to whether an IP address is sufficient to identify a software pirate. Copyright infringement cases massively launched by the entertainment industry always depend on identifying the IP address of the devices. However, industry experts have been questioning for a while now whether the IP address can be enough for evidence, since it can only identify a broadband connection, not a particular individual.

An adult video label named Malibu Media has launched about 350 mass lawsuits in 2012. Majority of the cases were settled out of court as the label had an IP address of the alleged infringers and therefore could threaten them with settlement demands. However,

Largest Chinese Tech Giants Not Allowed into US

According to the American House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee, they must shut Huawei out of the domestic market due to potential Chinese state influence on the companies, which may pose a security threat.

The position the United States has taken is the opposite of that in the United Kingdom, where Huawei cooperates with the UK intelligence agencies. The panel leaders of the United States have carried out an 11-month investigation of both entities due to the fears that China might spy on them.

US Politicians Spy on Each Other in WoW

The US Democratic Party was noticed doing crazy things recently – it went as far as to start a witch hunt into how the candidates play the World of Warcraft.

In the State of Maine, one of the Democratic candidates was told she can’t be stand for office only because she played an Orc assassination rogue. She was attacked for a “bizarre double life”, since in World of Warcraft her character is “Santiaga” – an “orc assassination rogue” that features green skin, fangs, a Mohawk and pointy ears.

US ISP Voluntarily Enforced Graduated Response System

Despite the fact that Mediacom, one of the largest ISPs in the country, isn’t to be a part of the “six-strikes” regime, it decided to punish its subscribers by permanently cutting their broadband connection in case they are alleged of unauthorized file-sharing.

Normally, copyright owners have to send DMCA takedown notices to broadband service providers to force them take action or ignore. However, Mediacom decided to apply its own policies, which include the permanent disconnection from the web after a third accusation.

American Voters Will Decide Web Future

Since November, American voters will have a very important task to decide which officials have the power to online legislation. To highlight the importance of the future elections, an association of online rights outfits has recently launched a “voter registration drive” across the United States.

InternetVotes.org says its aim is to help people avoid such bills as SOPA and CISPA to be enforced. That’s why a website was opened where people are able to fill out a form and say what they think of the web as a whole and how it is handled by the authorities. In addition, Internet users are able to use the site’s widget to promote the cause.

American Banks to Expect Cyber Attacks

One of the financial services industry groups has recently warned American money men to be alert for hacker attacks after both Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase had suffered unexplained outages.

According to the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, the outfit had some credible intelligence about the possibility of cyber attacks. It turned out that some unnamed individual posted a statement online, where they threatened to attack Bank of America and the New York Stock Exchange as part of a campaign against American corporations.

United States against Huawei

United States is again against the communications giant over concerns that the company presents a threat to national security. The matter is that Huawei positions itself for more business in the west.

The meeting is scheduled to take place between the US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, the executives from Huawei, and the representatives from its rival ZTE. The plan of the meeting is to scrutinize the strategy of expanding their businesses.

President’s Campaign Trail Led to Reddit

Barack Obama has recently come to social website Reddit to post a thread in IAMA, the section where people want Redditors to ask them questions. Taking into account Reddit's enormous user base, mostly of a liberal Internet-savvy constitution, the move in question was a PR hit in spite of the fact that Obama refused to tackle a lot of the trickier questions.

The President spent a half an hour responding to various questions before, as he said, he went for dinner with his family. Reading through the responses he gave, you would learn that he is

US Government’s Domain Seizures Questioned by Congress

Lately last month a group of Representatives, led by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, has written to Attorney General Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security, rising questions about their abusive domain seizures.

The letter claimed that the concern of the Congress members had centered on DHS methods, as well as the process given, when seizing the domains of online services whose actions and material are presumed to be legitimate and protected speech. The authors also mentioned the case of an ex hip-hop portal Dajaz1 that had been seized for over a year despite proven evidence that the