Google, Facebook, Twitter: How much should we trust our new information overlords?

The Internet was once a place for free information exchange. Once. Social networks like Facebook try to re-establish closed networks again. Google substantially changed its privacy settings, and Twitter's recent move to censor tweets also raised deep concerns. "How much should we trust our new information overlords?" - Good point, Mathew!

GigaOM :: Google, Facebook, Twitter - These are businesses with corporate interests, not triumphant defenders of free speech — and they each provide the bulk of their services for free, and make money by selling their users’ attention to advertisers. General counsel Alex Macgillivray says Twitter is committed to being “the free speech wing of the free speech party,” and the company says it would never use its new powers to block tweets during an event like the Arab Spring, or prevent dissidents in Iran or China from using it to further their cause.

Mathew Ingram: But how do we know this for sure? We don’t.

Continue to read Mathew Ingram, gigaom.com