Since early this morning, the Internet has been effectively cut off in Syria. Internet intelligence company Renesys reported that all 84 of Syria’s ISP address blocks have become unreachable. The most recent update at noon shows 92 percent of Syria’s networks still down. Read More

Writing about Facebook's recent disclosure of its reporting guidelines, Jillian York writes: "Facebook should be commended for lending transparency to a process that has long come under criticism for its seeming arbitrariness. Such transparency is imperative to help users understand when their behavior is genuinely in violation of the site’s policies; for example, several activists have reported receiving warnings after adding too many new “friends” too quickly, a result of a sensitive spam-recognition algorithm. Awareness of that fact could help users modify their behavior so as to avoid account suspension." Read More

PDM editorial director Micah L. Sifry spent last Friday through Monday at South by SouthWest Interactive, attending panels, keynotes and hanging out. Here's his report: SXSW is still a place where sessions packed with thousands of attendees cheer for the iconoclasts and the game-changers. It is also much more of a business networking conference than an internet futurists' playpen. In short, it has a split personality. Read More